DALLAS. – Celtics forward Kristaps Porzingis walked without a limp into Boston’s media availability one day before Game 3 of the NBA finals, but his status for Wednesday’s (Thursday in Manila) game with the Mavericks was unclear due to a new lower leg injury unrelated to the calf issue that sidelined him for more than a month of the playoffs.
“It’s a serious injury,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said Tuesday afternoon (Wednesday in Manila). “At the end of the day, the medical team is not going to put him in any bad situations. We’ve taken the decision to play out of his hands.”
Boston officially listed Porzingis as questionable.
Porzingis said he’s optimistic he can take the court because “I have to be,” but claimed not to know the specifics or risk related to playing with what is reportedly a torn ligament.
Specifically, the Celtics announced Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) that Porzingis has a “torn medial retinaculum allowing dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon in his left leg at 3:27 of the third quarter of Game 2.”
Porzingis averaged 16 points per game in the first two games of the series as the finals shift back to Dallas, where Porzingis played alongside Luka Doncic from 2019-22 before a trade to the Wizards.
“I felt something, now I have to deal with it. It’s going to be day-to-day. We’ll see how I am tomorrow,” Porzingis said. “As I said, I will do everything I can to be out there.”
