Boston Celtics championship starting center Kristaps Porzingis has yet to play a single game this season. The 7-foot-3 big man is still recuperating from an offseason surgery on a left foot injury.
Per Cameron Tabatatabie of Celtics Wire/Yahoo Sports, Porzingis appears to be nearing his 2024-25 season debut. He now goes through pregame warm-ups with the rest of his teammates and is traveling with Boston for road tilts.
This week, Porzingis logged a practice with Boston’s G League affiliate squad, the Maine Celtics (formerly the much more entertainingly named Maine Red Claws), at Boston’s Auerbach Center. He was quickly recalled to Boston later that day.
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Third-year Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla took in some of Porzingis’ practice with Maine.
“I only watched a little of it,” Mazzulla said. “But he got through good, and came out okay, so he’s just continuing to wrap it up and is getting better and better.”
Mazzulla went on to praise Porzingis’ recovery journey this season.
“All I know is he’s getting better every day,” Mazzulla said. “He’s working really hard at coming back as fast as he can, and he’s in the next phase of ramping.”
Boston has weathered the storm of an extended Porzingis injury absence before. Last year, en route to claiming a record 18th NBA championship, the Celtics leaned heavily on aging former five-time All-Star Al Horford, nominally the club’s sixth man, to pick up the slack.
Last year, Porzingis appeared in just 57 contests, averaging 20.1 points on .516/.375/.858 shooting splits, 7.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.9 blocks and 0.7 steals a night. Porzingis got hurt early into the Celtics’ 12-2 run through the Eastern Conference playoffs. He ultimately appeared in just seven playoff games for Boston during its title run (including just three Finals games), averaging 12.3 points on .467/.345/.909 shooting splits, 4.4 rebounds, 1.6 blocks, 1.1 assists and 0.7 steals a night.
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Horford started 33 regular season games and all 19 of the Celtics’ playoff games in Porzingis’ absence. He’s not quite the elite rim protector Porzingis can be, but both are solid long-range shooters and rebounders, while Horford is a high-level distributor.
The 38-year-old Horford has submitted a competent two-way performance in Porzingis’ stead this season, too, while young big man Neemias Queta has emerged as an intriguing primary reserve for Horford — and thus a solid third-string option for whenever Porzingis does come back. Across his 13 available games this year, Horford is averaging 10.2 points on an excellent .516/.477/1.000 slash line, plus 5.5 boards, 2.2 dimes, 0.9 steals, and 0.8 blocks a game.
