The Boston Celtics are already one of the best teams in the league early this season, and that is without their star center, Kristaps Porziņģis.
Porziņģis has yet to play this season after undergoing surgery to repair his retinaculum injury. His recovery timetable was set at five to six months.
We’re getting closer and closer to that time. In the meantime, Porziņģis was spotted doing drills and ramping up his basketball activity prior to the Nets matchup on Wednesday.
Porziņģis was spotted doing some drills, including getting some shots up pregame and half-speed 1-on-1 drives.
Here is how he looked.
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) November 13, 2024
Kristaps Porzingis going through some pregame warm-ups here in Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/djwo67GZwI
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) November 13, 2024
Porziņģis has yet to pay this season, but that hasn’t slowed down the Celtics. As of Wednesday, they have a 9-3 record and one of the best offenses in the league.
Through 12 games this season, Boston is ranked fifth in points per game (119.8), fourth in average score margin (+9.6), 13th in fastbreak points per game, eighth in effective field goal percentage (55.7 percent), and second in free throw percentage (82 percent).
The Celtics are a dangerous group and are not even at full strength yet. Porziņģis stretches the floor and is a perfect fit with this team, which is why this team won the championship last season.
Porziņģis last played in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals. He scored five points and helped the Celtics secure their record-setting 18th championship.
Porziņģis initially suffered a calf strain in Game 4 of the first round of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals in late April 2024, and he missed the rest of that series. He missed the next two series and returned in the finals to take on his former team, the Dallas Mavericks.
Porziņģis played in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, but before Game 2, he had developed a new injury with a “torn medial retinaculum, allowing dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon” in his left leg that was considered completely unrelated to the previous calf injury he had dealt with for most of the playoffs.
Finally, a week after winning the title, he underwent surgery.
This isn’t the first time Porziņģis has struggled with injury. The most games he has played in in a season was 72, last doing so as a rookie in the 2015-16 season.
In the past four years, he has played in 216 of a possible 328 games, which comes out to 65 percent.
