BOSTON — Kristaps Porzingis couldn’t have asked for a better return to the floor on Friday night against his former team. The big man sat out four straight games due to a calf strain before getting a green light from the Celtics training staff. While facing off against the Knicks on Friday night, Porzingis hit his first seven shots from the field on his way to an efficient 21 points in 29 minutes in Boston’s 133-123 win. More importantly, Porzingis came through the contest without any physical issues.
“It felt good,” Porzingis said. “Happy to be back. Felt good to be back out there. Was itching to get back out there with my guys and happy about getting back and beating a good team like the Knicks. Calf felt good, clean. No tightness, nothing. Perfect. Shoutout to our medical staff.”
With Porzingis back in the fold, Boston improved their record to 11-1 on the season when their full usual starting five is healthy. His impact on Boston’s offense was evident as all five starters finished in double figures, creating havoc for the Knicks’ defense all night.
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“It’s just crazy talented guys out there, and anybody can score 10, 15, 20 points in the first quarter and get hot,” Porzingis said of that group. “Anybody can do that. And each game is gonna be different. I think what’s cool again is we don’t care who it is. Nobody cares. It could be D. White, boom, we’re just gonna keep looking for him, or that person is gonna stay aggressive and we don’t care. We want to be aggressive when it’s there and that’s it, play for each other.”
Joe Mazzulla also made a point of singling out the sacrifice he was seeing from that grouping.
“He was good,” Mazzulla said of his center. “I thought he was good. You got to see a glimpse of the identity of what our team can look like on a nightly basis. I keep saying this to the team, success is going to look different every single night. I thought Derrick was great. I thought it was great to see Jrue be aggressive. I thought Kristaps was good. But for Jaylen and Jayson, there was a point where Jayson didn’t score in the first quarter and Jaylen had taken like three shots, and you couldn’t tell because they were doing other stuff.”
The Celtics have struggled offensively at times with Porzingis sidelined over the last two weeks, dropping nearly out of the top 10 in offensive efficiency. With him back on the floor, looks became easier for everyone involved, earning him high praise from teammates.
“He’s special,” Derrick White said. “A guy that size who can do the things he can do on both sides of the ball, it’s a great weapon to have. Obviously he started the game off knocking down a couple 3s, getting to the paint. He can do literally anything on the basketball court. Having him back out there was huge for us.”
With three days off, Porzingis will have plenty of time to recover before testing the calf again versus the Cavs at TD Garden on Tuesday night.
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