BOSTON — Details on Kristaps Porziņģis’ injury remained scarce on Wednesday afternoon as the Celtics prepared to begin life without him starting with Game 5. All Joe Mazzulla and his players knew is that he’ll miss at least the next week with a calf strain, but avoided a far more devastating Achilles tear when he stumbled while setting a screen in the second quarter on Monday.
“Obviously, he’s a real dynamic player and provides a lot of mismatches and probably some nightmares for the other team,” Sam Hauser said at shootaround. “Those are tough shoes to fill, but I think collectively, we can fill them in a different way. We just gotta go in playing confident and act as if nothing changes, even though he is a big part of what we’ve had to this point. It sucks. You never want to see someone go down. I’m glad it’s not as serious as it might’ve looked on TV and in person, so I hope he gets healthy quick and we get him back at some point if we can continue to win here.”
Boston did in their first night without him, eliminating the far more injured Heat, 118-84. Boston can now rest and recover until at least Sunday — that layoff will extend to Tuesday if the Magic and Cavaliers play a Game 7. The Celtics have learned from experience how to win without Porziņģis during the regular season, going 21-4. Still, Porziņģis will likely miss the second round given the roughly 17-day absence for soleus strains.
Re: Porzingis: KP suffered the same injury that is currently keeping Giannis sidelined. As I mentioned then, the soleus is a part of the calf muscle complex. The average time lost for strains specified as a soleus injury is ~17 days (6 games). Read more here:…
— Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) April 30, 2024
The Celtics’ regular season success without him included a pair of victories over Phoenix, a rock solid win over the Pelicans at home, at Philadelphia and Dallas, alongside other less remarkable competition. More importantly, the Celtics’ splits held up through all the minutes they played with Porziņģis off the floor. Their offensive rating improved by 0.7 points per 100 possessions to 121.5 and their defensive rating stayed the same. Boston outscored its opponents by 11.8 points per 100 without Porziņģis, a better number than when he played (+11.2).
“You can’t replace what he does on the floor,” White said. “Obviously, it’s a big hole for us, but we got guys that have stepped up before. When you can put Al Horford in, that’s a luxury that we have, so we’re gonna be ready to go.”
Playoff circumstances could make the Porziņģis loss more impactful than it proved during previously, though. Many of those absences happened for one night, mostly between back-to-backs, with Horford able to fully rest on the other half before or after compensating for his teammate’s absence. He only missed a pair of extended stretches, a 3-1 slate at the end of November against Atlanta, Chicago and the Sixers without Joel Embiid. They lost the fourth game to Indiana during the In-Season Tournament. The five games he sat out later included Phoenix, twice, Portland, Utah and Washington. All of those teams are defensively, far cries from Cleveland and Orlando.
The Heat won the second half on Monday, 52-49, after Porziņģis exited the game. The Celtics shot 44.2% from the field and 27.8% from three without him and Jayson Tatum struggling to get his shot off against extra Miami pressure. Two days later, a higher-paced effort led to another stellar White night (8-13 FG) and four other double-figure scoring performances while the Celtics shot 54.5% overall. Tatum took only nine shot attempts in Game 5.
“Pace has a lot of different definitions, but we played a little faster,” Mazzulla said. “The ability to sprint, slip, create indecisions, get out and run. I thought our guys did a good job of dictating the tempo over the last two games. When you can get out and force cross matches and get guys off your body, it gives the Jrues and Derricks and Paytons and Sams a little bit more of an impact on the game, which is important for us.”
Bam Adebayo found success against Horford in the first round, hitting 18-for-32 (56.3%) from the field while Luke Kornet fared better (5-14 FG) in his spurts of opportunity. Small samples, but intriguing results before Boston moves on to Orlando or Cleveland, the third and seventh-ranked defenses in the regular season, respectively. The Magic have held the Cavs to 98.9 points per 100 possessions, the second-best mark in the playoffs, but fell behind 3-2 when Donovan Mitchell led Cleveland to a win in the fourth quarter of Game 5. Both teams feature strong front court talent. They play again on Friday in Orlando.
The Celtics will miss Porziņģis’ post-up ability most, which Tatum and Jaylen Brown could replace in greater screening roles. Jrue Holiday also likes to play with his back to the basket, but he shot only 31.4% prior to a stronger Game 5 (3-5 FG).
The loss of Porziņģis’ length and size on defense could become impactful. Xavier Tillman Sr. didn’t play through the first four games after losing favor late in the regular season before a brief appearance at the end of Game 5. Kornet can play in drop. Boston got away from that quickly against the Heat’s high dribble handoff sets in Games 3-4, losing those minutes over a small sample size by 47 points per 100 possessions. The Celtics finished +21 overall in his minutes on Wednesday.
“Their switching is trying to slow us down a little bit, take one-on-one and take tough shots,” White said. “We’re just trying to get to the next action, make the right read quicker, drive, kick and get those advantages off that. It’s definitely a different challenge without K.P., but we’ll be prepared for it.”
The Celtics could eventually experiment with playing smaller through Oshae Brissett or Hauser minutes, while Neemias Queta signed a standard contract and became playoff-eligible last month. He played well in spurts during the regular season when multiple big men went down. On Wednesday, Mazzulla ramped up Horford’s minutes, went to small-small screening on offense and spaced the big men. That’ll become the primary plan for now.
According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Porziņģis is considered week-to-week. Mazzulla added that he’ll be evaluated next week. By comparison, Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a soleus strain on Apr. 9 against Boston and is just getting back on the floor, missing Milwaukee’s Game 5 win on Tuesday three weeks into his recovery. Round 2’s Game 7 is scheduled for May 19, two weeks from Sunday’s potential opener.
“Next guy up mentality,” Brown said on Wednesday. “We look to play a little faster, increase the pace and getting some familiarity, tonight was like a view of how we want to play without K.P. on the floor, but I think we got a lot of room for growth. I still think that we can play a lot better … K.P., he wants to be out there bad. You can tell, just knowing him now, he’s smiling, but you can tell it hurts him that he’s not being with his team. I just told him, hey, we’re gonna hold it down. Just get your recovery in, get back healthy and we’re not gonna miss a beat when you come back.”
