DENVER — Celtics fans again winced when they saw Kristaps Porzingis on his knees in clear pain. On a play midway through the first quarter, Payton Pritchard missed the short jumper, but Porzingis was in great position for the tip-in layup. The only problem was that he took an inadvertent kick to the groin from Zeke Nnaji. Here’s a look at the play.
Porzingis was clearly in pain afterwards and needed to be subbed out as Jaden Springer took his place for a handful of seconds. Fortunately, he was back on the court as the C’s took the win over the shorthanded Nuggets on Tuesday at Ball Arena.
“You can imagine what happened,” Porzingis said. “Yeah, it was honestly pretty painful, I’m not going to lie. But it went away pretty quick, so all good. I know it scared everybody but all good.”
For a moment, it looked like Porzingis was going to go down with another injury. He’s already been hit by one issue or another, whether it was the surgery rehab or his recent ankle sprain. Fortunately, there was nothing extra that came from the kick to the groin other than the sheer pain factor.
Porzingis played one of, if not his best, game of the season Tuesday. The Nuggets were without three-time MVP Nikola Jokic, who was a late scratch due to an illness. The big man took advantage, putting up 25 points and 11 rebounds as he was a force on both ends of the court.
That’s the Porzingis the Celtics traded for roughly 18 months ago. He’s voiced his frustrations about being injured, but it’s clear he’s getting his legs under him even with the on-and-off availability. The Celtics will take that and then some as they return to Boston after a 3-1 road trip.
“Probably like 80 or 85%,” Porzingis said of his condition. “So I still have a little bit to go. Shot needs to calibrate a little bit better. I haven’t been shooting the ball well this season so there’s definitely things I can improve. But I know that moment is coming when everything will start clicking and I’ll play really high-level basketball.”
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