Can the Celtics Get Away With Not Having Kristaps Porzingis Back Until The Finals?
On Wednesday’s edition of Toucher and Hardy, Jared Weiss who covers the Celtics for The Athletic, joined the show and made the case that the Celtics shouldn’t need the Latvian native until the finals due to the talent of the teams left in the Eastern Conference. Porzingis suffered a right soleus strain in game 4 of the team’s series against the Miami Heat.
So He Actually Has a Rhythm…
Fred Toucher: Let’s say Kristaps Porzingis during the course of this series, feels like he could play. If you’re the Celtics would you play him?
Jared Weiss: No, no, no-no-no. I don’t think he’s going to. It doesn’t seem like the series is going to go long enough for that to even be a factor, because I feel like he’s going to probably be out for like, three-ish weeks at the very least. So I’d be surprised if that were to happen. Obviously, the series could end up going 6 or 7. Sure, if they get to a game seven and he’s remotely close, he’s probably playing right, but it seems pretty unlikely we’re going to get to that point.
Fred Toucher: Let’s just stick with the Eastern Conference. Is there a team left in the Eastern Conference you’d think that the Celtics would need Porzingis, to win?
Jared Weiss: Probably not. I think Indiana and New York are better than what this Cleveland team is. I mean this Cleveland team has just been very inconsistent, and we saw what happened when they face a team that actually has an offense because, you know, Orlando’s offense was not that good. Boston’s offense has been very resilient all season no matter who was out there. They could probably get away with not having him back until the finals. Even if that was the case, you want him to not make his return for game one of the finals against Minnesota, or whoever it ends up being. Who thought we’d be saying that even a week ago. So you want him back during the conference finals so he can get some reps under him, so that he actually has a rhythm by the time they get to the finals. But, I mean no matter what the East looks like, you never just presume you’re making the finals. New York has been so resilient all year. We saw how the end of that game went so you need all hands on deck if you want to make it to the NBA finals.
