Kristaps Porzingis: Mystery illness during Celtics playoffs ‘as frustrating as you can imagine’
NEW YORK When the Celtics season ended Friday night Kristaps Porzingis still had not shaken the viral illness that depleted his vitality and his talents throughout the Eastern Conference semifinals And worse yet he still didn t even know exactly what the illness was Even right now I played minutes but I m gassed right now the Boston big man announced after his group s - elimination loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden I could just lay down over here and take a little nap easy It was just extremely weird and multiple signs that were super weird I think nobody has a clear answer I ll see how I go from here Porzingis was able to play in all of the Celtics playoff games but his minutes were severely restricted and he looked like a shell of his usual highly impactful self when he was on the court He averaged just minutes per contest in the second-round series against the Knicks coming off the bench in four of the six contests His limitations hurt the Celtics at both ends of the court as Boston blew leads of and points in three of its losses to New York Porzingis did not see the floor after halftime in Games and Super super frustrating he declared As frustrating as you can imagine Just to not be able to help this club more especially with Jayson Tatum going out Not being too much of a help just hurts deep inside of here It really sucks It really really sucks in these moments But what can we do I tried to give what I had and we just fell short Porzingis finished his postseason ranked last among all NBA players with at least field-goal attempts in field-goal percentage effective field-goal percentage and true shooting percentage His -point percentage was the worst of anyone who took at least threes Related Articles Jaylen Brown sends message to Celtics fans after death of title defense Celtics pulverized in season-ending Contest loss to Knicks Celtics shake up starting lineup for must-win Battle vs Knicks Jayson Tatum visited Celtics teammates ahead of Tournament was in good spirits Celtics new ownership group finalized sale commitments met Despite Porzingis struggles and fatigue including what he described as capacity crashes head coach Joe Mazzulla continued to play him as part of a frontcourt rotation with Al Horford and Luke Kornet Porzingis commented sitting out was not a consideration because his doctors though unclear on his exact finding didn t believe playing would make his condition worse No when I got the approval from the doctors they don t believe anything serious can happen he announced They tested my heart everything Then it was just a matter of me how much I can give And yeah I tried to give what I had It wasn t much as you could see But yeah there was no bigger liability so I was able to play Porzingis hopes to gain more clarity about his illness this offseason though he does not believe it is a long-term concern After taking time to rest he intends to play for his native Latvia in the EuroBasket tournament which begins in late August and hopes to use that as a springboard for a stronger start to the - season He had to spend last offseason rehabbing following lower leg surgery and didn t debut until late November I consistently try to downplay it in my own mind that I m good I m good but I don t know Porzingis reported My system just is not perfect right now It s not working the way it should be Multiple various weird things And it might be the best thing I need right now is just to rest just get somewhere in the sun and just let my system kind of even itself up But it definitely was a very very frustrating time for me and nothing much else to add really It s going to be now for me at least chosen time to recover from this Whether Porzingis still will be with Boston next season remains to be seen as important Celtics roster changes could be coming this summer He has one year and million remaining on his contract
