BOSTON – Kristaps Porzingis says he doesn’t know what to expect when he suits up for Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday night.
Coming off a calf injury that’s sidelined him the past five weeks, Porzingis has met with the media twice in back-to-back days, and hasn’t exactly quieted fears about his health.
While he says he’s “feeling good,” he won’t say if he’s 100 percent heading into tonight’s tip-off against the Dallas Mavericks.
Porzingis was taken off the injury report, and yet, still sounds a bit hesitant.
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Of course, given what’s at stake, Porzingis might be employing a little gamesmanship. Maybe he’s intentionally messing with the Mavs.
Maybe he’s underplaying his readiness before hitting Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving et al with a lights out performance.
Or, his hesitancy is valid and he legitimately doesn’t know what to expect. Maybe every stride on the floor will be a test, so he’s trying to lower expectations.
“I did as much as I could to prepare for this moment, but there’s nothing like game minutes and game experience that I’m going to get,” Porzingis said Wednesday after confirming that he would in fact be playing. “It will be tough to jump into the Finals like this. I did everything I could to prepare for it and we’ll see tomorrow night.”
Again, it’s hard to know what to make of that. He struck a similar tone during his presser the day before.
Is he being coy, and guarded on purpose? Or should everyone have an eyebrow raised because he’s not sounding overly confident about his condition.
There were other times he didn’t seem hesitant at all. Asked if he’s tested the calf every way possible to gain some assurances, he said he had. But then he inserted a smidgeon of doubt – followed by a wry smile.
“Yeah, no, I mean, I did everything, right,” he said. “You have to check all the boxes to even get to this point. Of course, as I said, you cannot imitate the same intensity in practice as it’s going to be tomorrow in the game.
“I have to feel confident to go out there and leave it all on the floor and expect that I’m going to be healthy and completely fine.”
Having to feel confident, is not the same as being confident. So it seems he feels good enough, but he’s not all the way certain.
Or, he’s merely pulling everyone’s leg.
The beauty of him being wishy washy, whether it’s intentional or not, is the Mavericks also don’t know the answer to how healthy he truly is. They don’t know if he’s going to play 10 minutes, or 20. And how good he’ll be during those minutes.
As for Porzingis’ teammates, to no surprise, they also aren’t giving much away.
Al Horford, who has played extended minutes during the two playoff series Porzingis has missed, was asked if the center looked 100% to him in practice.
“Yeah, I mean, I feel like he’s looked good. Kristaps, he’s more of a gamer,” Horford said. “I know when the game comes around, if he says he’s playing, he’s going to be ready to roll.”
That’s hardly convincing.
During the layoff, Porzingis has done his best to stay engaged, stay involved as he’s worked to recover from the injury. He’s been on the bench, cheering his teammates on during games. But there’s nothing like actually being in the middle of a game, and helping influence the outcome.
“Burns inside of me, you know, not being able to be out there,” he said. “But (Thursday) finally I’ll get the chance and I’m excited.”
If the Celtics get the real Porzingis, or a reasonable facisimile of what he gave them during the year, the Green team is going to be even tougher to beat. He spreads the floor, scores inside and out, and is a 7-foot-2 rim protector.
“He’s obviously a very big part of what we do,” Horford said. “Just everything that he brings on the floor. He’s a threat offensively. As we know, he shoots it, he can post, he protects the rim for us. It’s just a really good thing for us to be able to have him back.”
On the court, Porzingis won’t be able to keep up the ruse – if that’s what it is. Everyone will see if his hesitance was justified, or simply made up to temporarily play with the Mavericks.
Along with an Oscar, there’s an NBA title riding on the answer.
