On Friday night, the Celtics got their swagger back.
After Kristaps Porzingis came up limping from a calf strain in Orlando two weeks ago, the Magic ran away with the game en route to a 17-point blowout. The Celtics would win their next three games, but didn’t have that edge Monday night in their loss to the Pacers in the knockout round of the In-Season Tournament.
Against the Knicks though, Porzingis showcased his entire skillset. In his return after missing four games, KP made his first seven shots in the first half, scoring from beyond the arc and taking smaller defenders in the paint.
“He’s just a threat, adds another huge threat to our offense,” Jaylen Brown said after finding Porzingis twice in the game for buckets. “Just him being 7-foot-3, setting screens, and him being able to just shoot the ball, it makes teams have to make decisions which opens up everybody’s game.”
Throughout training camp, the preseason, and the start of the regular season, every member of the Celtics top-6 has talked about how much easier the game is with Porzingis on the floor. He acts as a floor spacer to create driving lanes, as a release valve in the pick-and-pop, and when the offense bogs down, a traditional post-up big man.
And in a telling moment after the game, head coach Joe Mazzulla was asked about his impression of Porzingis’ return. He initially replied with three simple words, “He was good.”
But after some thought, Mazulla expounded. “You got to see a glimpse of what the identity of our team could look like on a nightly basis. I keep saying this to the team: success is going to look different every single night.”
And with Porzingis on the floor, it could look different quarter-to-quarter. The Knicks gave up 19 points to Porzingis in the first half, 11 points from Derrick White and 7 a piece from the Jays in the third quarter, and an evenly distributed final frame.
“For Jaylen and Jayson, there was a point where I don’t think Jayson scored in the first quarter and Jaylen had taken just three shots and you could tell because they were doing other stuff.” Mazzulla continued.
“Those guys are defined by one thing, but in really, that to me is success. Their teammates took the pressure off of them and they facilitated. That is what it’s going to take for us to be great is the balance. There are going to be nights where they have to be amazing and there’s going to be nights where we play like we did tonight.”
That was all in an answer to how Porzingis did in his first game back.
Porzingis didn’t hit a shot in the second half, but that didn’t seem to bother the big man. He reported no tightness in the calf that has troubled him since November 24th and the Celtics highest paid player seemed genuinely ecstatic to be back on the floor.
“Crazy talented guys out there and anybody can score 10, 15, 20 points in the first quarter and get hot. Anybody can do that,” Porzingis said. “Each game is going to be different. What’s cool is that we don’t care who it is. Nobody cares. It could be DWhite — boom — we’re just going to keep on looking for him. That person is going to stay aggressive and we just don’t care. We want to be aggressive when it’s there and that’s it — play for each other.”
