Kristaps Porzingis has had a difficult time adapting to his new team after playing in nine of the first 10 games of the season for the Dallas Mavericks. Monday night's game against the Boston Celtics was another example, one that forced head coach Rick Carlisle to yank him at a crucial point of the game.
Porzingis was shooting a ghastly 1-of-11 from the floor through 20 minutes, enough reason for the helmsman to pull the plug on the 7-foot-3 big man.
“There's nights like this,” Carlisle said after a 116-106 loss to the Celtics, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon. “We're just going to flush it and move forward.”
Porzingis has struggled to find his rhythm since suiting up for the Mavs, struggling to get the feel for the game once again after sitting out for a year-and-a-half after suffering a torn ACL in Feb. 2018.
It's hard to fathom that the unicorn would want to watch from the bench as the Celtics pulled away in the final minutes, but he'd be hard-pressed to make a case for his inclusion, considering how poorly he shot the ball on Monday.
“Of course I want to be out there, but can't blame him,” Porzingis said. “I wasn't having a great game. I'm all-in for whatever's best for the team. If the coach thinks he'd rather have me out and have someone else in that's having a better game, let's do it if we can win a basketball game. That's the most important thing, but going forward, I want to make sure I'm out there.”
Porzingis is shooting only 40.1% from the floor and a mind-numbing 68.4% from the foul line through this early stretch. The feel will eventually come back, and Carlisle will likely refrain from pulling his star out of the game in the future.
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