Kristaps Porzingis clearly is sick and tired and being sick and tired, and Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla knows his team certainly could use a healthier KP to avoid a second-round KO against the Knicks.
The 7-3 Porzingis logged only 27 combined minutes in the Knicks’ two victories earlier this week in Boston due to what he believes “probably” are the aftereffects of an upper-respiratory viral illness that sidelined him for nine games in February and March.
He had five points and four rebounds in the Celtics’ Game 3 victory, but was a plus-11 in his 19 minutes of action.
“You’d rather have him, and you feel his absence, because of his versatility and what he’s able to do on both ends of the floor,” Mazzulla said before his Celtics blew out the Knicks, 115-93, in Saturday’s Game at Madison Square Garden. “Our depth is a strength of what we have. At the same time, to have a guy like KP, you want to have him as much as you can.
“And so we’ll look at KP to try to do that, and I know he’s doing what he can to make sure he’s available.”
On ABC’s pregame coverage, NBA insider Shams Charania detailed a little more with how Porzingis has tried to battle through.
“It’s led to him having energy zaps and stamina ebbs and flows over the last couple of months, and he felt that he had actually turned the corner right as the playoffs started in mid-April,” Charania said. “But in his own words, he had a crash right before Game 1 of this series, and he’s tried a lot of different things to try to mitigate the side effects. I’m told he’s been receiving IVs, immune boosters.
“He’s even changed up his sleep patterns to try to get more rest. He’s essentially waking up Malika [Andrews] every day, hoping and praying that he feels better.”