Kristaps Porzingis is at risk of missing the remainder of the 2024 NBA Finals after suffering a torn medial retinaculum after Game 2. While the injury has been described as serious and requires a few months of recovery, Celtics’ head coach Joe Mazzulla refused to rule him out of Game 3 until the team could make a decision tomorrow morning.
“He’s doing everything he can to be ready for the game tomorrow. It’s a serious injury. At the end of the day, the medical team is not going to put him in any bad situations. We’ve taken the decision to play out of his hands because of his importance. He is going to do everything he can to play and then we’ll leave it up to our medical team.”
“It’s a serious injury. At the end of the day, the medical team is not going to put him in any bad situations. We’ve taken the decision to play out of his hands.”
Joe Mazzulla on Porziņģis’ day-to-day status pic.twitter.com/cBTfIMdoPd
— NBA TV (@NBATV) June 11, 2024
Porzingis has missed most of the 2024 Playoffs, getting injured in Round 1 and returning to the court for Game 1 of the Finals, where he was arguably their best player in the win. Unfortunately, these injury issues have been a theme of Kristaps’ career and were one of the main reasons he was traded away by the Mavericks in 2022.
Kristaps averaged 16.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks through the first two games of the Finals, taking away the team’s rim protection which could give the Mavericks a chance to make a comeback in this series.
Outside of Porzingis, the Celtics aren’t the best at defending the paint or the rim, which could lead to the Mavericks maximizing their opportunities inside the paint, already having outscored the Celtics in the paint in Games 1 and 2, even when Porzingis was available.
Kristaps Porzingis Is Willing To Die Playing In The NBA Finals
Porzingis, like almost every NBA player, has been looking forward to the NBA Finals his entire career. The opportunity to win it as part of the NBA’s most storied franchise and against the team that traded him away two years ago was important to the Latvian center.
After it was apparent he had re-injured something during Game 2 of the Finals, Porzingis commented on his injury and made it clear that even the risk of death can’t keep him off the floor.
“I feel good. Feeling good. Yeah, I don’t think it’s anything serious. But we’ll look at it tomorrow and go from there. But all good. I’ll be good… I feel good. Obviously, something happened, a little bit. Have a couple of days again. Believe me, we’ll do everything we can to be back and moving well… I’ll die out there if we need.”
This demeanor shows why Mazzulla felt the need to explicitly say that the decision to play was being taken away from Porzingis in favor of the medical team’s opinion. He clearly will go out and play even if he’s on one leg, but the Celtics won’t be too thrilled about sending an injury-prone 7’3″ five-man out on the court in his current state.
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