Kristaps Porzingis had a rough night on Friday in the Dallas Mavericks' 120-113 road win over the Phoenix Suns. In 34 minutes, Porzingis failed to convert on any of his eight shot attempts – including six from beyond the arc – and finished with just two points on the evening.

Even with the cold shooting night, Porzingis was still proud of the way he impacted the game in other ways.

“Tonight I felt like in that sense I gave a step forward where the offense wasn’t going for me, (and) I wasn’t trying to force it too much,” he said, per Dwain Price of Mavs.com. “I was just playing through my teammates and tried to do the rest of the stuff I can do out there – rebound, block shots.

“I think I played great defense – pick-and-rolls. There’s much more to my game that I can do and I think I made a big step forward. I’m proud of myself for not falling into that when I’m not playing well offensively, I’m kind of frustrated and nothing’s going well, so that was a step forward for me today.”

Despite scoring just two points off of two freethrows, Porzingis finished the game with 13 rebounds, two steals, and three blocks. He played gritty defense throughout the night and altered a lot of shots from Phoenix.

The 7-foot-3 forward has understandably struggled in the early goings of his comeback season so far after missing the entire 2018-19 season due to an ACL injury. Through 17 games, the Latvian Unicorn is averaging 17.3 points while shooting 39.8 percent from the field, and 34.9 percent from deep – all of which are down from his All-Star campaign in 2017-18.

Despite the struggles offensively, Porzingis is averaging a career-best 9.4 rebounds this season and is swatting away 2.2 shots per contest.