Kristaps Porzingis to return from undisclosed illness for Celtics vs. Nets
Porzingis has missed the Celtics' last eight games due to an unidentified viral illness.
The Celtics will have Kristaps Porzingis back in their lineup on Saturday.
Porzingis will play with a minutes restriction in Saturday’s game against the Nets in Brooklyn, marking his first game action since Feb. 26. The star big has been out since then with what the team has listed as a non-COVID illness.
As the team didn’t share what specific illness Porzingis has been dealing with, he didn’t really know what he had, either.
“I have been dealing with some viral illness that we haven’t been able to fully identify yet,” Porzingis wrote in a social media post on Monday. “I am recovering and getting better. But still working my way back to full strenght to help this team. Thanks for support and Im hoping for a healthy return soon.”
Even though Porzingis has been sick, he has been with the team over their last two games. He was on the bench for Wednesday’s game against the Thunder and had a pregame workout prior to Friday’s game against the Heat in Miami.
Porzingis was listed as questionable for Friday’s game, but ultimately didn’t play. As the pregame workout offered up some optimism for an imminent return, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla didn’t give an update on Porzingis’s status ahead of Friday’s game.
The viral illness has caused Porzingis to miss eight games to this point, in which Boston has gone 6-2. That record has continued a strange trend for the Celtics this season, in which they’ve played better without Porzingis (27-7) than they have with him (20-12).
However, the Celtics lost two of their biggest games of the season with Porzingis out of the lineup over that eight-game stretch. The Cavaliers came back to beat them on Feb. 28 in a potential Eastern Conference finals preview. On Wednesday, the Thunder edged out the Celtics in a possible NBA Finals preview, outperforming Boston inside the arc.
Derrick White recognized that Porzingis’s unique ability to stretch the floor and provide a strong rim presence has been something the Celtics have missed with him out of the lineup.
“Obviously it’s a dynamic that we miss and something you can’t really duplicate,” White recently told reporters. “So it’ll be nice once he gets back and healthy to get him back into the flow of things and get him back into game shape and everything. So it’s all a process and it’ll be nice to have him back.”
With Porzingis missing the first 17 games of the season due to offseason knee surgery, the Celtics’ preferred starting lineup has only played 20 games together this season. With only weeks remaining in the regular season, Mazzulla knows that time is ticking for that group to form a cohesion before the playoffs begin.
“I think it’s important to continue to get as many reps as we possibly can with our entire team,” Mazzulla said.
Even with Porzingis returning, that won’t happen on Saturday. White (left knee contusion) will miss the matchup against the Nets.
Still, Porzingis’s return is welcomed news. He’s averaged 18.9 points and 6.8 rebounds in 28.9 minutes per game this season, adding a team-high 1.2 blocks per game.
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