Kristaps Porzingis got his introduction to the Celtics rivalry against the Bucks firsthand on Wednesday night in front of a capacity crowd at TD Garden. The big man gave the Boston crowd plenty to cheer about with 21 points and 6 rebounds over 27 minutes in a 119-116 Celtics win.
Porzingis put on a show with Jaylen Brown for one stretch of the game in the third quarter where the duo played off each other to combine on dunks on several possessions. However, it was on the defensive end of the floor where Porzingis made a more surprising impact. The big man served as a valuable rim protector for much of the evening, bothering Giannis Antetokounmpo with some timely help defense, leading to a lackluster night (7-of-20) for the big man.
In his first taste of the rivalry between the two teams, Porzingis couldn’t help but acknowledge how much he enjoyed being a part of it.
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“I thought it was great,” Porzingis said. “Obviously, the fans and everybody in the building knew that this is the number one and number two seed playing against each other, and that just adds more fuel to the atmosphere. And our friends here in this building are incredible. And yeah, the energy was there. We played hard. They made a good push at the end and almost made a comeback, but we held strong and JT knocked on those free throws at the end, and we sealed the game, and that’s it. But definitely, you know a good team to measure ourselves against.”
Coming from playing for a lackluster Wizards team last year that didn’t produce much energy in their arena, the difference in Boston has been striking for Porzingis. In fact, the added fanfare has changed his own intensity.
“I would say it does,” Porzingis said. “It definitely gives me extra passion, it’s just natural for all of us players. We wanna play, you know, in front of big crowds, great energy. For me, it may be a little bit too much because I have to, you know, relax a little bit.”
The big man acknowledged after earning his league-leading 7th technical foul on Wednesday night that he needs to reel in his emotions in front of the passionate crowd.
“It’s definitely, you know, it adds more fuel to the passion that I have for the game and to play hard and you wanna make the right play for your team and for your teammates,” he said. “Sometimes you just go a little bit too emotional, but work in progress.”
With Porzingis playing some of the best basketball of his career, the Celtics are surely happy to take that emotional trade off. One of the biggest question marks about his acquisition this summer is whether he would be a defensive liability in a matchup against the Bucks. He seemed to be far from that after a stellar debut versus Milwaukee on Wednesday night.
“I’m of course enjoying it and I can kind of compare it to my rookie year and my first few years in the league when I was playing for the Knicks,” Porzingis said of playing in Boston. “Playing there was also incredible and all the places I’ve been, you know, it’s different in each place but, definitely, you know what stands out is, New York and here in Boston, it’s been a joy to play in front of these fans and get so much support.”
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