Take a deep breath, Boston Celtics fans. Kristaps Porzingis doesn't believe the calf injury that caused him to leave the Celtics' loss to the surging Orlando Magic on Friday is of the serious variety.
Porzingis exited Friday's game with 6:44 left in the third quarter and never returned. The Celtics announced shortly thereafter that he would miss the game's remainder with left calf tightness. In the postgame locker room, Porzingis stressed that he's still awaiting an MRI but doesn't believe the injury is “too serious.”
“Kristaps Porzingis tells the Globe he’ll have an MRI on his left calf to tomorrow but doesn’t think the injury is too serious,” Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe wrote on Twitter. “Said he felt a tweak running the floor. Did not slip.”
Celtics crumble to Magic without Kristaps Porzingis
Boston led the upstart Magic by eight at halftime, a deficit the home team had entirely erased to tie the score at 62-62 once Porzingis left midway through the third quarter. The Celtics' managed just eight points over the next six minutes of game time after Luke Kornet entered for Porzingis, the offense missing the latter's pivotal spacing and threatening pick-and-roll element against the second-best defense in basketball. They managed just 40 points in the second half overall, beset by Jaylen Brown's career-worst 1-of-14 shooting after intermission as well as an inability to get stops on the other end.
Porzingis has been a driving force behind Boston's league-best start to 2023-24 on both sides of the ball. He's never been more physical and intentional while attacking on the roll or posting up size mismatches, and is the skeleton key that unlocks the Celtics' picture-perfect five-out spacing in the halfcourt. Porzingis has been an impactful rim-protector, too, forcing opponents into stingy 52.8% shooting on 7.7 attempts at the rim against him per game, according to NBA.com/stats.
Much as he was missed on both ends in Orlando, Boston has still been able to thrive this season without Porzingis on the floor. The Celtics boast a +11.1 net rating when he's on the sidelines, per Cleaning the Glass, a dominant number slightly better than their top-ranked season-long mark accomplished by rock-solid two-way performance. Al Horford props up most of those non-Porzingis lineups at center, but even units with both of Boston's best bigs on the bench have kept their head comfortably above water over the first month of 2023-24, further indication of this team's peerless top-end talent.
Injuries have played a major part in Porzingis' career. He missed all of 2018-19 with a torn ACL and hasn't played more than 65 games since his first two seasons in the NBA with the New York Knicks. Fortunately, muscle issues like a calf strain have been atypical for Porzingis throughout his eight-season tenure in the league. Any lower-body injury for a player his size is extra fraught, but both the specifics of his injury history and post-game optimism suggest Porzingis is unlikely to miss a significant chunk of the schedule, if any time at all.
Should be unable to play in Boston's next game against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday, expect Horford to get the start in Porzingis' place with Kornet backing him up.
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