Kristaps Porzingis is clearly not right at the moment, and a new report this week on his condition is only amplifying the concerns.
Shams Charania of ESPN appeared Friday on “The Pat McAfee Show” and spoke about the Boston Celtics big man Porzingis. Charania reported that Porzingis is still experiencing some worrisome side effects from the virus that he contracted in March.
“My understanding is he’s been dealing with lingering side effects from the virus that he had in March,” Charania said of Porzingis. “It’s something that has zapped his energy. It’s drained him. He has had to rely on getting a lot more sleep over the last couple months. He’s had to take IVs [and] immune boosters.
“He’s trying to figure out ways to mitigate it,” added Charania. “[The Celtics] have run him through a battery of different tests, and they have not been completely been able to identify which virus this could specifically be.”
The seven-footer Porzingis indeed missed the first half of March due to a mysterious illness. Upon his return to the lineup on March 15, Porzingis himself provided some details on the issue, calling it an “upper respiratory illness” and adding that “I haven’t been this sick for probably ever in my life.”
Porzingis ended up missing five more sporadic games to close out the regular season but has appeared in all seven games for the Celtics during the playoffs thus far. That said, Porzingis’ conditioning has not at all been up to par, especially over the first two games of Boston’s second-round series against the Knicks (where he is averaging a miserable 4.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game on 33.3 percent from the field).
The 29-year-old Porzingis had to exit at halftime of the Celtics’ Game 1 loss to the Knicks and then came off the bench during Boston’s loss in Game 2. As a result, the 38-year-old Al Horford and the little-used Luke Kornet have had to pick up extended frontcourt minutes instead.
Porzingis didn’t help matters either with the bizarre remarks he made after the Celtics went down 0-2 in the series. But when it comes to his play on the court, Porzingis is clearly being hampered right now by the lingering effects of his mystery illness from a couple of months ago.
