BOSTON (AP) — Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis is slated make his season debut Monday night against the Los Angeles Clippers following offseason ankle surgery.
The 7-foot-2 Latvian center was upgraded from probable to available about an 90 minutes before tipoff, though Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said how much he'd play was to be determined. Veteran center Al Horford, who has started 14 of the Celtics 17 games this season, is out Monday with an illness. Fellow big man Luke Kornet is also sitting out as he continues to deal with hamstring tightness.
“He has worked hard, he's in good shape. We'll put him in position to be healthy and be successful and do what's best for the team,” Mazzulla said. “He's been pretty consistent, just based on his work ethic and what he's done to get to this point.”
Porzingis had surgery to fix a tear in the tissue that holds the ankle tendons in place. The issue limited him to seven playoff games during the Celtics' NBA championship run last season.
Boston is 14-3 this season, but has missed his presence on the inside, with teams routinely outscoring the defending champions in the paint.
Mazzulla acknowledged that how Porzingis plays on the offensive end, particularly how he operates sometimes out of the high and low post, will force some adjustment from how the team has played this season without him on the floor.
“I think last year we had an opportunity to see how teams were guarding him,” Mazzulla said. "That'll take a little bit of time to figure out what the coverages are, just get used to that spacing. That'll take some time. ... Then we'll figure out how we go from there."
The original window for Porzingis' return following surgery was five to six months. But Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said before the season that they didn't want to hold to a specific timeline because of the uniqueness of the injury.
Porzingis injured his ankle in Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks and missed the next two games. He returned for Game 5, contributing five points and one rebound in 16 minutes as the Celtics beat Dallas 106-88 to clinch their record 18th title. Porzingis averaged 20 points and seven rebounds in 57 games for last season.
He signed a $60 million, two-year extension with Boston in the summer of 2023 after the Celtics acquired him in a trade with Washington.
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Kyle Hightower, The Associated Press
