Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis is dealing with a “serious” injury to his left leg that could prevent the game-changing big man from playing in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
Could the injury been avoidable? Not completely, but is it possible Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla could have impeded further damage?
NESN’s George Balekji expressed his feelings regarding Mazzulla’s decision to keep Porzingis in the game following the injury on the “Boston Has Entered The Chat” podcast Wednesday.
“To Joe Mazzulla, when this injury goes down with 3:27 left in the third quarter, now given, KP kept playing, and it didn’t look bad at the moment,” Balekji said. “But fast forward to the fourth quarter and that man goes down awkwardly and he’s out there on the court limping, hiding in the corner, out of breath, hunched over telling you everything of ‘Get me out of this game,’ and you let it go up and down, and up and down, and up and down the floor and leave him in.
“I’m not saying that led to the severity of this injury, but you don’t know. It might have with him coming back into the game after he injured it in the third. Pushing himself in the fourth, goes down, hurts his leg. You don’t know what’s happening there, right? Get the X-factor of your team and the lifeblood of your team off the F off the floor when this happens Joe.”
Balekji added that he knows Mazzulla loves his timeouts and wants to see the Celtics figure it out on the floor, but leaving in Prozingis could have done more harm than good.
“When Kristaps Porzingis, that (7-foot-2 unicorn), goes down like that, just call a damn timeout,” Balekji said. “Get him out of the game because you need him if you want to keep your foot on the throat of the (Dallas) Mavericks.”
The ninth-year pro had been sidelined since April 29 when he sustained a calf injury in Miami before returning to the lineup for Game 1 on June 6.
If Porzingis is unable to play in Game 3, the Celtics will have to use bench players Luke Kornet, Oshae Brissett and Xavier Tillman to back up Al Horford, who would most likely start at center for Boston.
Check out the full “Boston Has Entered The Chat” episode in the video above, as Balekji and co-host Travis Thomas discuss more about Porzingis, the NBA Finals and other trending sports stories.
