In a reminder to not believe everything you see on social media, the Celtics ruled Kristaps Porzingis out for Saturday night’s showdown with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Despite indicating via his Instagram account that he would play against LA and taking the court for pregame warmups, the Boston center missed his fifth consecutive game and sixth in the last seven due to illness.
Head coach Joe Mazzulla did not offer any updates on Porzingis’ status during his pregame news conference. He said Thursday that Porzingis was “coming into the facility every day, trying to get shots up, sweat it out.”
“He’s just not feeling well, but he’s working to get back,” Mazzulla said.
The rest of Boston’s roster was available against LA, with Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford and Sam Hauser all returning after sitting out Thursday’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers. Holiday (mallet finger) and Hauser (sprained ankle) were upgraded from questionable before tipoff.
Holiday missed four consecutive games after injuring his right pinky finger last week in a loss to Detroit.
The Lakers also were without their starting center Saturday night, as Jaxson Hayes — who rose to the top of a thin depth chart after LA traded Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic — was ruled out with a knee contusion. Forward Rui Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy) was unavailable, as well.
The center position was viewed as a weak spot for LA following the Davis/Doncic deal, but Hayes’ move to the starting lineup hasn’t hurt the Lakers, who own the NBA’s best defensive rating since the start of February. Losing him softened the blow of Boston needing to play another game without Porzingis.
Horford replaced Porzingis in the Celtics’ starting lineup alongside Holiday, Brown, Derrick White and Jayson Tatum, with Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta as the top two options off the bench.
When the Lakers made JJ Redick an offer to become their next head coach, one of the first calls he placed was to Mazzulla. The two have built a strong relationship over the years, with Mazzulla making a push to hire Redick to his Celtics staff after he became Boston’s head coach in 2022.
In an effort to not give away any competitive advantages — “psychological tells,” he calls them — Mazzulla generally avoids speaking with coaches from other NBA teams during the season. But he did reach out to Redick once: after the former 15-year pro’s home burned down in the Los Angeles fires.
Redick had high praise for his Celtics counterpart in his pregame presser.
“It’s a challenge every night in the NBA, because there’s a lot of great coaches, and Joe’s one of the best,” Redick said. “I have the utmost respect for him as a coach and as a competitor.”
The first Celtics-Lakers meeting this season — a 117-96 LA rout on Jan. 23 — was before the latter acquired Doncic in a blockbuster trade that stunned the sports world. Doncic also did not play when Boston faced his former team, the Dallas Mavericks, two days later.
So, Saturday night was the first time the Celtics saw the five-time first-team All-NBA selection since defeating his Mavs in last season’s NBA Finals.
“You use a little bit. Obviously, the circumstances and things have changed. The roster is different. So there’s some stuff that’s applicable and some stuff, obviously, with having LeBron (James), having some other guys, they’re shooting the ball a little bit better, especially the second half of that Knicks game (on Thursday night). So you take a little bit from there, and other that, you just get ready to adjust to what they’re capable of.”
Redick also had an up-close look at the Celtics’ clashes with Doncic last June. He called the Finals for ABC before being hired by the Lakers.
“I don’t know if it was after the first game or the second game, but doing prep very early with Luka, I said to my video group, ‘You guys have to get me previous games against these teams and how they covered him.’ Because he is such a unique player, and you do have to mix up how you guard him,” Redick said. “So I’ve been doing that for every game, but certainly took a look at a lot of the Finals stuff from last year. I think the biggest thing is just organizational spacing. That’s been a theme throughout the 10 games he’s played.”
Doncic is best known for his rare talents as an offensive player (and for the conditioning and defensive effort concerns that precipitated his shocking exit from Dallas) but Redick said his commitment to being a reliable defender has been exemplary.
“I think his buy-in and level of engagement defensively have been awesome for us,” Redick said. “I think the timing of when we got him and where our group is at, both from a spirit standpoint and confidence standpoint, but also just a defensive toughness standpoint, he came in at a perfect time.”
Doncic entered Saturday’s game averaging 23.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 8.1 assists since his Feb. 2 move to LA.
Tatum was 5 years old when James entered the NBA way back in 2003. For James to still be one of the league’s premier players more than two decades later, Tatum said, is nothing short of incredible.
“As much as we talk about LeBron, we probably don’t talk about him enough,” Tatum said Thursday. “Being 40 in his 22nd season, playing at an All-NBA level, is incredible. It’s a testament to the work that he puts into this game, to his body to stay in the best shape to be able to compete and perform at the highest level for over two decades now. It’s something that we should all strive to do, even if it might be unlikely. But it’s a joy to be able to compete against him in these matchups for however long we get to do it.”
Saturday’s game was James’ 48th at TD Garden, including playoffs, by far the most of any Celtics opponent since the arena opened in 1995. The next four on that list: Vince Carter (36), Kyle Lowry (36), Kyle Korver (35) and Jermaine O’Neal (34).