Despite all the adversity, the Celtics rallied to win Game 5 Wednesday night.
Just 48 hours after the locker room was rattled from their franchise player rupturing his Achilles, they came out and dominated in the second half to win 127-102.
The Celtics will head to Madison Square Garden for Game 6 on Friday night, looking to force a Game 7 back in Boston.
Even with impressive performances from Derrick White, Luke Kornet and Jaylen Brown, the elephant in the room continues to be Kristaps Porzingis.
MORE: Jaylen Brown, Luke Kornet & Derrick White step up after Jayson Tatum injury
Kristaps Porzingis “couldn’t breathe” according to Joe Mazzulla
Head coach Joe Mazzulla said after the game that Porzingis was going to sit unless it was “absolutely necessary” to play him.
The reason? He couldn’t breathe.
MORE: Derrick White proves Celtics can still win NBA title after Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury
After stretches during the regular season of quality basketball, Porzingis looks like a totally different player in the playoffs so far.
Porzingis shot a career-high 41.2 percent from 3 this regular season and is only shooting 12.5 percent (3-24) this postseason.
Porzingis did miss a few weeks of action during the regular season after suffering from an illness that wasn’t identified. It seems to be lingering during this playoff run, as Game 5 was an example of it impacting his performance and ability to be on the court.
Porzingis is averaging just 4.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 16.4 minutes per game against the Knicks this series.
With Jayson Tatum out for the remainder of the postseason, we will see what decisions are made to continue to replace the load that Tatum would typically provide the Celtics when available.
MORE: Celtics’ Luke Kornet makes Kristaps Porzingis irrelevant with shot-blocking masterpiece
