Kofi Inkoom
On Friday night, the Orlando Magic pushed the Cleveland Cavaliers to a Game 7 in their first-round playoff series, which should come as a relief for the Boston Celtics, who are currently without Kristaps Porzingis.
Although there’s no official timeline for Kristaps Porzingis’ return, there’s a sense of optimism that his calf strain won’t sideline him for the rest of the playoffs. Porzingis, speaking to reporters since injuring his right soleus muscle in Game 4 against Miami, remained positive yet realistic about his recovery process.
“It’s something; it’s not nothing. So it will take a little bit of time, for sure,” he acknowledged. “But I’m doing everything I can to like speed it up because I want to be back out there as soon as possible. But, understanding like, the worst thing would be like probably to re-aggravate that. So being smart.”
Reflecting on his previous injury, Porzingis admitted they took their time with the recovery because it occurred early in the season. However, with the urgency of the playoffs, he’s hopeful for a quicker return this time around.
“I’m not on the floor yet,” he said. “But very soon, I expect to start doing stuff. Still in the weight room, still movement and slowly building up and all that and slowly building up. And I would say each day it’s a lot of progress. (It’s) Still very fresh, but making progress.”
Recalling a similar injury earlier in the season, Porzingis noted the luxury of time they had then, which is no longer the case. This time, he plans for a more aggressive approach to his recovery while remaining cautious.
“I think I missed a week and a bit, maybe,” Porzingis remembered. “But we took it, like, way slow and very cautious. This time around, because of the part of the season that we’re in, it’s gonna be much more aggressive, I would say. But being smart, and day-by-day, week-by-week, and just seeing how I progress, and, yeah, hoping for quick, quick, quick.”
As he focuses on recovery and maintaining high spirits, Porzingis, intending to travel with the Celtics for their road games against New York, though pending medical team approval, added that it’s too early in the rehab process to establish a target return date.
With Porzingis possibly sidelined for game 1 of the round 2, Luke Kornet or Al Horford are expected to see increased playing time until he returns later in the series.