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Kristaps Porzingis’ return and 7 other takeaways from NBA Finals Media Day
"Unless they change the light bulbs in the arenas, they won't be any brighter than they were the last series."
With the tip-off to the 2024 NBA Finals just a little over 24 hours away, the Celtics and Mavericks took part in the league’s annual Media Day on Wednesday afternoon at TD Garden.
NBA Finals Media Day is often mayhem — with hundreds of reporters, TV cameras, and other personalities swarming both rosters over two-plus hours.
Wednesday’s session was an eventful one, with both the Celtics and Mavericks diving into what should be a fascinating matchup with a title on the line.
Here are eight takeaways from the 2024 NBA Finals Media Day:
Porzingis pledges return for Game 1
At long last, the Boston Celtics are fully healthy with the NBA Finals right around the corner.
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Boston had no players listed on their injury report Wednesday evening, signaling that Kristaps Porzingis is slated to make his return to the court after missing the last 10 games with a calf strain.
“I will play tomorrow,” Porzingis declared ahead of Boston’s practice on the parquet floor.
The Celtics’ big man has not played since April 29, with his return against the Mavericks giving Boston an elite rim protector who also elevates his team’s offensive capabilities thanks to his ability to score in the post, hit midrange jumpers and make teams pay beyond the arc.
“He’s obviously a very big part of what we do,” Al Horford said. “Just everything that he brings on the floor. He’s a threat offensively. As we know, he shoots it, he can post, he protects the rim for us. It’s just a really good thing for us to be able to have him back.”
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Even though Porzingis seems to have the green light for Game 1, it remains to be seen just how healthy he is — given the wide variance of recovery times with calf injuries.
“It’s tough to say. I haven’t played. I haven’t played for a while,” Porzingis said. “Tomorrow will be my real, like, first real minutes in a while, you know? I did as much as I could to prepare for this moment, but there’s nothing like game minutes and game experience that I’m going to get tomorrow.
“It will be tough to jump into the Finals like this. I did everything I could to prepare for it and we’ll see tomorrow night.”
2022 Finals still linger for Celtics’ core
This is not the first NBA Finals rodeo for several key cogs on the Celtics’ roster. While Jrue Holiday won a ring with the Bucks in 2021, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Horford, Derrick White, and more Celtics players were on Boston’s roster in 2022 when the team came up short against the Warriors in the NBA Finals.
Despite the lessons learned from that 2022 run, Tatum still doesn’t harp on the experience.
“I hate that I had to go through it. I wish we would have won,” Tatum said. “But I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. There’s a lesson to be learned in every situation. I do feel a lot different this time, this go-around, two years later. I’m excited for the opportunity for us to get the job done.”
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It’s only been two years since the Celtics came up just short of a championship, but Brown stressed that plenty has happened since then.
“We got a different team. We got a different coach, too, as well. We had Ime Udoka; now we have Joe Mazzulla,” Brown said. “We had Marcus Smart, Rob Williams; we have Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis. Different team, different coach two years later makes a pretty big difference.”
While some players might want to burn the tape after falling in the NBA Finals, Brown stressed that he has rewatched film from that six-game series several times — as well as other shortcomings for Boston in recent memory.
“I’ve watched it a few times now, maybe four or five times. As well as last year’s conference finals (against the Heat),” Brown said. “I think you can always learn from anything really. But just being able to watch those moments and learn from them, how to manage your emotions, like, what you would have did differently potentially.
“I don’t think that’s bad to look at and acknowledge and be aware of. So I would say a few times at least I’ve watched the Finals, the whole thing, all the way through.”
Mazzulla’s one-liners continue
Joe Mazzulla’s blunt and candid comments during press conferences have often drawn attention, with the second-year head coach’s emphasis on staying in the moment often leading to him not taking the bait on questions from the media.
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That trend continued on Wednesday, especially when asked about the “bright lights” that come with playing in the NBA Finals.
“Yeah, I mean, unless they change the light bulbs in the arenas, they won’t be any brighter than they were the last series,” Mazzulla said. “It’s just sticking to the details, the things that matter, the truth.
“The truth of the matter is if you don’t box out, if you don’t sprint back in transition, if you don’t pass the ball in a two-on-one, if you don’t take away the other team’s tendencies, if you don’t know who you’re guarding, don’t recognize the spacing, if you don’t talk, if you don’t play hard, you’re not going to win.”
As for any talk of this Finals showdown with the Mavericks being the end to this “journey” that has been the 2023-24 season?
“I would say this is not the end of the journey,” Mazzulla said. “The journey is for however long you’re alive. This is just one piece to that. Regardless of what happens you got to wake up the next day and do your job. The journey will forever be there.
“You’re just ready for it. You do everything within your control to prepare for it, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Tomorrow you just get after it. The game, the environment will tell us what we need to focus on, what we need to get better on and what we need to do. The most important thing is staying even keel and staying with poise. I think that’s something our team has done a good job of doing all year.”
Doncic expecting a hostile crowd
Kyrie Irving is far from the only Mavericks player expecting boos and jeers on Thursday night at TD Garden.
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“It’s hard to play in this place,” Luka Doncic said Wednesday. “The crowd is amazing for their team. All I got to say is we got to stay together. It’s us against them. We got to stay together. But it’s going to be really hard to play in this crowd.”
Granted, Doncic is no stranger to hostile crowds — and dishing it back with his play on the court.
The 25-year-old guard led the league in scoring this season with 33.9 points per game, while also averaging 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists. He has thrived at TD Garden in his career, averaging 32.2 points in his six games on the parquet floor.
But the most hostile crowd he’s ever faced was not in an NBA setting.
“It was (the) quarterfinals of EuroLeague against Panathinaikos in Panathinaikos,” Doncic said. “The crowd went crazy. They started winning 20-0. Imagine that.”
Brown reflects on Irving’s tenure in Boston
Even though Irving still holds court as one of the most hated figures in Boston sports history, the sentiment hasn’t been shared by some of his former Celtics teammates.
Despite Irving making several critical comments about Boston’s young core during his final season with the team, Brown noted on Wednesday that he’s happy to see Irving thriving with a new team in Dallas.
“I think it was great,” Brown said. “Definitely learned a lot from Kyrie while he was here. It’s been great to see his journey, see where he’s at, all the stuff he’s going through, stuff like that, to be where he’s at it’s amazing, it’s dope to see.”
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Of course, those positive words will ring hollow once Game 1 actually begins.
“How to stop him? That’s a great player over there, so it’s going to be a full-team effort,” Brown said. “Him and Luka. Making sure we’re alert, making sure we’re back in transition, and do the best we can.”
Porzingis praises Doncic after tenure in Dallas didn’t work out
Irving’s history with the Celtics is a popular storyline leading into the NBA Finals. But Porzingis is also set to face off against his former team in the Mavericks.
Porzingis was one of the featured players on the Mavericks from 2019-22, with his size and scoring ability making him an intriguing option to pair alongside Doncic. But their time together did not work out, with former NBA player Chandler Parsons declaring earlier this week that Doncic “did not like playing with” Porzingis.
Both Porzingis and Doncic didn’t feed into the narrative when asked about it on Wednesday.
“It’s always been good,” Porzingis said of his relationship with Doncic. “He’s one of the best players in the league, in the world. It’ll be a tough challenge for us to try to stop him. But just following his career. When he came in the league, he already made a huge impact.
“I had the opportunity to play with him for a couple years and get to know him. Just knowing what type of person he is, the type of player he is, just his mindset. He’s a special, special player. We have a big challenge ahead of us competing against somebody like that.”
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“I don’t know why it didn’t work out,” Doncic added. “We were still both young. We tried to make it work, but it just didn’t work. So, moved on.”
High praise for Brad Stevens
Both Mazzulla and Brown had plenty of good things to say about Brad Stevens, who has made the successful transition from Boston’s head coach to the team’s president of basketball operations.
“Everybody in the organization is a leader in their own way,” Mazzulla acknowledged. “Everybody sets the temperature when they come in. Brad giving me my start, hiring me, empowering me from day one as an assistant, giving me some of the opportunities that he has. But also the way he carries himself.
“I’ve always had a lot of respect for how he went about coaching, how he kept family balance number one. How he treated people, number one. That was always more important than whether there was a success or a failure. I think he spearheads the leadership, the temperature of the building, just as everybody else does.”
After making the switch to the front office, Stevens has orchestrated several key trades and roster moves that have put Boston just four wins away from a title — including three deals that brought back White, Holiday, and Porzingis.
“I think Brad has been great in his role as GM. He was a great coach,’ Brown said. “I think he just continued that by just being a great GM, being able to put the right pieces together and things like that.
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“Just happy for him. His schedule has been able to settle down, probably putting a little bit less stress on him than we did when he was coaching us. But, no, Brad has been great since he’s been a part of the Boston organization. He’s helped bring this organization back in terms of winning. He’s now been able to move into that GM position and put the right pieces together to get us back to the Finals.”
Banners hang forever
Tatum was candid when asked about whether or not the 17 championship banners hanging above TD Garden present any added pressure to this current Celtics squad.
“I mean, you know the answer to that. Of course, right? We only hang NBA championship banners, right? 17 of them,” Tatum said. “Some of the greatest players to ever play this game wore this uniform. All of us are honored to follow in their footsteps, the way they paved for us to live out our dream.
“Essentially, yeah, if you want to be one of the greats to put on this uniform, every great before you won a championship. That’s what we try to play for every single season. The expectations are obviously different here. It takes special players to be here and to be a part of an environment like that.”
The Celtics will get their chance to earn an 18th banner starting on Thursday night.
“I would just like to add to it,” Holiday said. “I think to be a part of history would be cool, especially a history that the Celtics have and everything that comes with it. Again, I would say that I probably don’t take a bulk of the pressure because we have Jayson and Jaylen on our team.
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“But to add to that is I feel like a part of the reason why I was brought here, the part of reason why I wanted to come.”
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