Jun 16, 2024, 8:20 PM ET
The Celtics are monitoring the progress of Porzingis’ injury and whether he will make it to Game 5 against the Mavericks.
BOSTON — While the Boston Celtics try to close the NBA Finals with a victory about the Dallas Mavericksit remains to be seen if Kristaps Porzingis will return to the court for Game 5 on Monday night.
“I haven’t talked to him yet,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters at TD Garden on Sunday. “I’m going to talk about that before we start (practice)… So I’m not sure where he stands.
“But he’s trying and doing everything he can to try to get into position of being there. I know for sure.”
The Celtics officially listed Porzingis as questionable for him Game 5.
Porzingis missed Games 3 and 4 in Dallas with a medial retinaculum tear that allowed him to dislocate the posterior tibial tendon in his left leg. Boston did not make Porzingis available to reporters This Sunday, although in a brief conversation with ESPN as he left the court, the center said that he felt better.
The 7-foot-3 Latvian, who had not played beyond the first round of the playoffs before this season, missed more than five weeks due to a right calf strain suffered in Game 4 from the series of Boston’s first round against the Miami Heat. He returned for the NBA Finals, with Boston going +25 in the 44 minutes he played in the first two games and tied for the 52 he didn’t, before getting injured during Game 2.
The Celtics have said Porzingis was considered day-to-day with what the team described as a “rare” injury. He missed Game 3, then was listed as active for Game 4, although Mazzulla noted that Porzingis “wasn’t quite ready” for game action and would be used only in very specific circumstances.
However, none of that happened on a night in which the Celtics were completely dominated by the Mavericks in virtually every way possible, which meant that “Porzingis Watch” returned to Boston for Game 5. His status for the game was will be revealed when Boston submits its mandatory injury report this Sunday.
As for the rest of the Celtics, you are focused on the task at hand: finish the job and raise the flag of the 18th championship in the rafters of TD Garden.
If the team accomplishes that task on Monday, it will be the 16th anniversary of when Boston won its last championship, which it also did on the famed parquet floor.
Jayson Tatum admitted this Sunday that the Celtics could have concentrated too much in trying to close the series with a sweep.
“I think after Game 4, (Mazzulla) just reminded us to have fun,” Tatum said. “We wanted to go in for the kill, essentially, and we wanted to win so much that maybe we got away from what makes us special and what makes us the Boston Celtics.
“Today I just reminded everyone why they are important to this team and why we all need each other and what a person brings to the table. I think it was very important for us to go over that today.”
Otherwise, the message of the Celtics was that while they can’t erase what happened in Game 4they can use it as a motivational tool to set their sights and do what is required to win the title.
Boston was able to respond to its first two losses in these playoffs with extensive wins over the Heat in the first round and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second, and Jaylen Brown said it won’t be difficult to focus in the task at hand.
“This is what we all work for,” Brown said. “We are about to complete what we set out to do at the beginning of the season.
“So I think it’s not hard to get everyone in that locker room on the same page right now. You just have to remind everyone that it’s just one possession at a time. We do it together and we fight like our lives depend on it. .and I think we will be fine.”
