Joe Mazzulla gives update on Kristaps Porziņģis’ illness

Kristaps Porziņģis had to exit the Celtics' Game 1 loss to the Knicks Monday night with a non-COVID illness. Head coach Joe Mazzulla updated reporters on Porzingis' status during a Tuesday press conference.

"He's a little bit better," Mazzulla said (via Dan Roche). "We'll see how he feels. Just kind of day-to-day." (UPDATE: The Celtics have listed Porzingis as "probable" for Wednesday night's Game 2.)

That sounds promising, but Mazzulla also alluded to a mysterious illness that forced Porzingis to miss eight games earlier in the season. Ostensibly, that illness never fully went away and Porzingis had been playing through it, and it became too much during Game 1 against New York.

"Since he came back, I think he's kind of been dealing with it on and off, fighting through it, working through it, doing the best that he can," Mazzulla said. "I think it was just too much for him in [Game 1]. I didn't know that was going to happen until I found out about it in that game. But, he had been working through it since he's gotten back and he's done a great job of being available. It was just tough for him to continue [Monday night]. So, we'll see how he handles that."

^{Kristaps Porzingis}

Porzingis logged just under 13 minutes without scoring a point, shooting 0-for-4 while pulling down four rebounds. It's possible the illness had been negatively affecting him from the start, and he'd given his best effort to get through it for a night.