The Celtics won their fourth straight game on Thursday night with Kristaps Porzingis watching from the sidelines. The big man was out on the court pregame going through an intensive workout after being sidelined yet again as he recovers from what the team has termed a hamstring injury.
“He’s progressing well,” Joe Mazzulla said before the win. “He was on the court today earlier, just working out with the guys. Don’t have an official timeline, but he’s getting better and better.”
Just how hurt Porzingis is remains unclear. He showed no ill effects of the injury while playing big minutes against the Nuggets last week before he was sidelined. However, the timing could not have been much better for a planned rest for the sharpshooting big man amid Boston’s path to the playoffs.
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Put simply, the biggest obstacle the Celtics have right now entering the playoffs is the injury bug and there’s no player the team should be more cautious with than Porzingis. He’s arguably as important as any player on the roster and his durability issues over his entire pro career speak for themselves.
Boston’s training staff likely always had a plan to keep Porzingis fresh and healthy for April and beyond but the team’s success and depth have given them extra leeway on that front.
Porzingis’ fill-in Al Horford looks fresher than ever after playing the lowest minutes load of his career (26.7). He scored season-high 24 points on Thursday night in his 33 minutes including six 3s as he punished Jusuf Nurkic laying off him on the perimeter to protect the paint.
“I really liked the mindset of our group tonight,” Horford said. “Just understanding what was in front of us. It’s a long season. Sometimes this kind of happens in the schedule and for us to find a way to compete and battle, and I felt like we did that all night. We knew we were going to get their best shot and we just stayed the course and continued to make energy plays and continued to play hard.”
Elsewhere, Boston has found some consistency with their bench bigs depth in Luke Kornet and Xavier Tillman. Kornet has been one of the best per minute reserve bigs in the NBA this year and Tillman has acquitted himself well as a rebounder and a switchable defender over the past two weeks for Boston since coming over from Memphis in a trade deadline deal. Horford is building trust in the 25-year-old already.
“Xavier’s super easy to play with,” Horford said. “On the court, he’s making the right read, he’s making the right play, he can defend really well, moves his feet really well, just makes the game easy for me, takes a lot of pressure off me when I’m out there with him. He just knows how to play, so I’m really excited to be able to play with him and develop that chemistry.”
The net result of these developments is the dream scenario for the Celtics and Porzingis entering the final month of the regular season. The veteran is a great fit with this group and has essentially survived the regular season grind. The team can get him back on the floor for stints whenever they see fit in the coming weeks but there will be no sense of urgency with a fully capable group behind him and the Celtics rolling in the standings with 15 wins in their last 17 games. That reality should make Boston even tougher to beat when the postseason arrives.
