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Kristaps Porzingis, Joe Mazzulla brush aside concerns of injury following Game 2 win
"I’ll die out there."
The Celtics left the TD Garden parquet floor with a 105-98 win in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night.
But the win could have quickly been downgraded to a pyrrhic victory had Boston lost big man Kristaps Porzingis to yet another leg injury with a title hanging in the balance.
The Celtics’ center appeared to tweak something in his leg with 6:21 to go in the fourth quarter, hobbling a bit on the court after elevating to contest a PJ Washington drive.
Even though he remained on the court over the next two minutes, Porzingis was clearly hampered down the stretch — prompting Joe Mazzulla to eventually pull him in favor of Al Horford for the final 4:40 of the contest.
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All eyes are understandably on Porzingis’ health at this stage of the NBA calendar, especially when he missed 10 straight games earlier this postseason after suffering a calf strain against Miami in Boston’s first-round matchup.
But speaking after Sunday’s victory, Mazzulla brushed aside any concerns regarding Porzingis’ health moving forward.
“Zero,” Mazzulla noted. “He’s good.”
During a postgame scrum with reporters, Porzingis revealed that whatever he tweaked on Sunday wasn’t related to the same calf strain that sidelined him for over a month during Boston’s ongoing playoff run.
Porzingis also brushed aside talk that his tweaked leg will hinder him from returning to the court in time for Game 3 against the Mavericks, in Dallas on Wednesday night.
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“I feel good,” Porzingis said. “Obviously, something happened a little bit. But have a couple days again. Believe me, we’ll do everything we can to be back and moving well. … I’ll die out there if we need. Just kept going. Obviously I was a little bit limited, so smart thing was to get Al back in there and close out the game.”
Porzingis has come off the bench the first two games of the 2024 NBA Finals, scoring 12 points and adding four rebounds over 23 minutes on Sunday night. Even though his minutes have been limited in his return, Porzingis’ energy and ability to impact the game down both ends of the court has been evident through Boston’s first two games against Dallas.
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