Boston Celtics star Kristaps Porzingis missed the second half of his team’s stunning Game 1 loss to the New York Knicks with an illness, and coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters on Tuesday that the big man was day-to-day. Shortly before Game 2 on Wednesday, the team announced that Porzingis would be available.
The team also announced that forward Sam Hauser, who sprained his ankle in the series opener, will not play on Wednesday. This hurts Boston’s depth and lineup flexibility.
Mazzulla said that Porzingis’ current situation is related to the mysterious illness that kept him out of eight consecutive games in late February and early March. During that period, Porzingis was on the bench with the team during games and working out at the facility, but was unable to play.
“I have been dealing with some viral illness that we haven’t been able to fully identify yet,” Porzingis wrote on social media on March 10, a few days before his return. “I am recovering and getting better, but I am still working my way back to full strength to help this team. Thanks for your support, and I’m hoping for a healthy return soon.”
After his first game back on March 15, he shared some more information about his symptoms. Further information regarding the illness remains unclear, though the team did indicate that it was not COVID-19.
“For a week, [I was] really just laying at home, trying to recover,” Porzingis said on March 15. “And then after that, I still had lingering fatigue. And, I still have it a little bit, but at least now, I’m getting into, more or less, shape to be able to play. But yeah, after each workout, I was — boom, big crash. So, I was really, really fatigued. Not normal.
“It was extremely, extremely frustrating not knowing what I had. I haven’t been this sick, probably ever, in my life.”
Upon his return, Porzingis was terrific on both ends of the floor, and helped the Celtics close the regular season on a 19-3 run that cemented them as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. He struggled in the team’s first-round series against the Orlando Magic, however, and was playing poorly in Game 1 against the Knicks before he checked out for good early in the second quarter.
“Since he came back, he’s kind of been dealing with it — working through it, fighting through it, doing the best he can,” Mazzulla said Tuesday. “And I think it was just too much for him in that game. He had been working through it since he’s gotten back, and he’s done a great job of being available. It was just hard for him to continue yesterday.”
The Celtics are accustomed to playing without Porzingis, who has only appeared in 99 regular-season games during his two seasons with the team, and was sidelined for the majority of the playoffs last year. But while they were able to win a championship largely without him, it’s hard to imagine them repeating if he’s not on the floor, or even not at his best. It is encouraging news, then, that he will not be sidelined for Game 2.
