BOSTON — Kristaps Porzingis unexpectedly left the Celtics’ Game 1 loss to the Knicks in the first half due to illness on Monday night. The Celtics were back together on Tuesday at the Auerbach Center watching film before a pivotal Game 2 matchup.
“He’s a little bit better,” Joe Mazzulla said. “We’ll see how he feels. Just kind of day to day.”
Porzingis only played 13 minutes in Game 1, missing all four of his shots before leaving the game with eight minutes remaining in the second quarter. He spent the rest of the half in the locker room before re-emerging briefly to warmup before the start of the third quarter. Ultimately, he headed to the back again and did not play in the second half with Al Horford starting his place.
Porzingis missed eight straight games with a viral illness back in March that sapped him of strength. Mazzulla revealed Tuesday that illness may still be having an impact on the big man.
“I think since he came back he’s kind of been dealing with it on and off,” Mazzulla said. “Fighting through it, working through it, doing the best that he can. And I think it was just too much for him in that game. So I didn’t know that was going to happen until I found about it in that game but he had been working through it since he’s gotten back. And he’s done a great job of being available and it was just tough for him to continue yesterday so we’ll see kind of how he handles that.”
The Celtics have relied heavily on playing with double bigs all year long with a rotation of him, Al Horford and Luke Kornet during the postseason. Without him they played with just a single big on the floor for the entire second half.
“KP is big for us,” Jrue Holiday said after Game 1. “Obviously so versatile, person who can either play in the paint or stretch the floor. Protects the rim, protects the paint, blocks shots and we definitely miss him, but, we’ve always had this next man up mentality. Until we know what’s up with KP we’ll just have to have that same mentality.”
The Celtics will release an update on Porzingis’ status on Tuesday afternoon ahead of their Game 2 matchup at TD Garden.
