Kristaps Porzingis indicated on his Instagram account that he got encouraging results from an MRI today on his left calf, tweets Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston. Porzingis suffered a calf strain that forced him out of Friday’s game in Orlando, but he posted, “Good news this morning. Be back very soon.”
Injuries have been a frequent concern for Porzingis over the past six years, but he has been healthy so far in his first season with the Celtics. He has appeared in 15 of the team’s first 16 games, with his lone absence caused by a bruised knee. Porzingis walked “gingerly” to the team bus after Friday’s contest, but he didn’t seem worried that it might be a long-term injury, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe.
“I felt a bit of something in my calf and just kept playing,” Porzingis said. “I felt like, OK, it’s some kind of strain or tightness, something happened there and you saw me limping a little bit. The medical staff pulled me out after that.”
Porzingis has already been ruled out for Sunday’s game against Atlanta.
There’s more on the Celtics:
- Jayson Tatum is upset with the NBA’s new emphasis on preventing players from hanging on the rim, Washburn adds. Tatum received a technical foul Friday for holding the rim too long after a dunk, but Washburn points out that it won’t count toward a possible suspension because it doesn’t deal with sportsmanship. “That’s a rule that they implemented that quite frankly I don’t think makes any sense,” Tatum said. “Because anybody who has ever played or dunked the ball, your momentum, you just try to make sure that you are stable when you land. You don’t want anyone underneath you. Maybe they just want me to let go and just land on my back.”
- Jaylen Brown is responding to coach Joe Mazzulla‘s desire for his players to be more versatile and find ways to contribute when they aren’t scoring, Washburn states in a separate story. Brown’s shot attempts have declined with the addition of Porzingis, but he has averaged nearly four assists per game in November and handed out eight in Wednesday’s win over Milwaukee. “It’s a new year, a new season, and I feel like I’m playing some of my best basketball in how I’m seeing the floor and I get into a flow and rhythm of things and I feel like I’ll be able to continue to do that,” Brown said. “I think when I get more guys playing off me, trusting that I’m going to make the right read, we should go to that a lot more.”
- Friday’s loss means Boston no longer controls its destiny in Group C of the in-season tournament, notes Souchi Terada of MassLive. The Celtics need to hope for a three-way tie with Orlando and Brooklyn, giving them an opportunity to advance on point differential.
Brown has had maybe 2 good games this year. The Brown minutes without Tatum have been brutal.
I’ve said this for years. Check his =/-. I think it is a plus 1 for the year. It is often the worst on the team. People complain about the bench; but when they are in with Brown and Tatum is out, Brown often goes into 1 on 5 mode. He had a great game against Milwaukee because he played as a team player.
The Celtics are the only team in the whole NBA that has a point guard leading its team in offensive rebounds. The team doesn’t have many problems, but this one is big enough to keep them from a championship. It needs to be fixed.
Right! Jrue Holiday is Celtics best statistical OFFENSIVE REBOUNDER. Payton Pritchard gets offensive boards too. Not good. We desperately need to get lots more offensive boards each game. Thus we need our subs to play more, every game, not just once in a while.Instead of just firing up a three and four guys retreating we need someone cutting to the rim, like Delano Banton & following up misses, like is basic with other teams. And obviously Neemias Queta proved himself with 6 offensive boards in the last game. He needs to play 10+ minutes every game. Go Celtics!
First of all the Celtics need a top of the line in order to get where everyone wants to go! This team team is under coached and the only way for this team to win a championship is with a coach that knows how to scheme and have the respect of these superstar. They played one real good game in Philly but the rest of time, it’s mostly who has the ball when they cross half court! Brown does not like being second and hates creating. Please get a better coach
I agree. If the Celts got a top-notch coach and help with offensive rebounding, they’d be unstoppable.
Please stop writing the same thing over and over
Why do you care how often steve decides that he wants to reiterate the same point constantly? Move on.
Thank you.
There’s irony here…
Got it.
The Celtics need to get some offensive rebounds! Someone needs to crash the boards! Make that the whole job. I nominate Oshae Brissett. Play him 20 minutes a game. Come in and crash the boards for offensive rebounds. If we get the same number of offensive boards as our opponents and thus total shots we won’t always need to outshoot our opponents win. We have to win games even when our shooting goes cold which is probably half of games. Go Celts!
Celtics problem is the same as last year. Joe Mazzulla is not an NBA coach. Hell i am not convinced he is a good college coach at any level.
Lets all be honest, its Brad’s team, not Joe M. Celtics are still using Brad’s horrible, no movement offense, and they still use his theory of jacking up as many 3s as possible. Stats v. actually playing the game.
The league already understands how to beat them, its not rocket science to beat a 3 pt offense especially when you dont have Steph Curry.
Maybe they win on just pure talent…but it wont be because of the foolish 3 pt philosophies and the crappy self help catch phrases that Mazzulla is all about.
You clowns are clownish ….. get help
Celtics are not playing their best…..
They have two new starters …….
They have new bigs …….
They have a new PG …….
They need time to get that chemistry ……
Team D Team offense takes time to build ….
Yes that do have things to fix …..
Yet they are the best team in the NBA (12-4)
STFU and enjoy the process of becoming a top team. It’s a 82 gm season.
You better not be calling me a clown and you better not tell me to STFU. I will find you, you SOB.