Report: Celtics’ Kristaps Porzingis expected to miss “a minimum of several games” with soleus strain

Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis will miss at least Wednesday’s Game 5 against the Miami Heat with a soleus strain, according to the team.

Shortly after the initial listing from the Celtics, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Porzingis would miss “a minimum of several games” with the ailment.

Porzingis left Monday’s Game 4 victory in the second quarter, after coming up lame on a dribble handoff.

Porzingis did fire off a tweet, following the win. He shouted out Derrick White for his 38-point explosion and told fans he appreciated their support.

KP has proven to be a huge part of Boston’s success this season. He averaged 20.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game while shooting 51.6% from the field and 37.5% from beyond the arc.

In this opening-round series against the Heat, his numbers had dropped a bit. Porzingis was posting just 12.3 points and 5.0 rebounds per contest on 38.9%/40.0% splits.

Even with the Latvian logging lower stats than he had in the regular season, he’ll still leave quite the shoes to fill.

Fortunately for the Celtics, they’ll be turning to veteran center Al Horford and a strong carousel of bench bigs to step up.

Horford told reporters that he’s confident in Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, and Neemias Queta should any of their names be called for some extra minutes.

“All season it’s kind of been that way,” he said (h/t CLNS Media). “You know, whether it’s — for different reasons, KP wasn’t always playing all the time, so Luke (Kornet), Xavier (Tillman), Neemy (Neemias Queta) have to kind of be ready to step up and answer the call. They’ve been doing a good job of that all year. Obviously, it’s the playoffs now and it’s different, but I have confidence in those guys. They need to come in and bring energy and impact the game.”

The Cs will look to close out the Heat in Game 5 Wednesday at TD Garden.