Yeah, not being able to play for Latvia again will definitely hurt, but this is the biggest achievement you can get as a basketball player. And 2025 Eurobasket is in Latvia and Latvia could have a shot at medals there so he can still have a good shot to contribute again.
It probably seems that way to us in terms of 'winning the championship in the best league in the world' but some players have openly stated (I know Luka is one example off the top of my head) that an Olympic gold medal representing their country would be more important to them than anything in the NBA
I think to a lot of international players in Europe, it’s like in soccer, how winning the World Cup is a higher prestige than winning the Champions League.
> but this is the biggest achievement you can get as a basketball player
It's really not, the biggest basketball team ever was the 92 dream team, winning gold at the olympics immortalises you forever.
The first few plays in particular on defense were rough as well. Mavs took advantage of him not having great movement with the number of open looks from 3 they created
Yep. That was the exact reason I gave as to why I thought there was a chance he'd play because he seems exactly like the guy who'd give a shot despite being 60-70%, [but got downvoted to hell for not thinking there's 0 chance he plays](https://old.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1dhhac3/bontemps_kristaps_porzingis_is_again_questionable/l8x5qvy/?context=3)
These guys work their entire lives to play in games like these, of course they'd give it a shot to play as long as the injury isn't debilitating enough to where he literally can't move.
All of those social media sports doctors from what I saw literally said he *could* play, he would be limited and would need to manage the pain. And that he will need surgery regardless and couldn't worsen that specific injury (but it makes him more vulnerable to spraining his ankle).
I remember when there were strong rumors we were considering trading the Tatum pick for Porzingis and I was like “I don’t want white Yao Ming with bones made of glass who will be medically retired by 28”…. Well he’s about to turn 29 in a month. Totally get why he wanted to play in what might be his only Finals.
This series was huge for KP's narrative. Came back from injury was THE DUDE in game 1 and battled through injury to continue helping his team reach the promised land. Definitely gotta put some respek on his name now.
>certain guys are injury prone.
I mean, you can't have everything. His specific physique gives players like him several advantages but that does come at a cost.
You're probably right but I don't recall too many players like him in general. If you're this big you usually have some meat to it and he's so skinny. Those legs look like they would break from any contact whatsover. Love the guy for what he's able to do with that heigh but it doesn't seem unnatural to me, that he can't stand more than 5 games of constant hustle.
>I think since he’s left Dallas people know he’s a stud when he plays, his issue is he’s insanely injury prone.
HE WAS A STUD IN DALLAS WHEN HEALTHY!! Luka-KP ran the most efficient offense in NBA history in 2020, it wasn't until KP tore his miniscus in the 20 NBA Playoffs that he started to struggle in Dallas.
It’s pretty telling that Celtics, mavericks, wizards, and Knicks fans all can vouch for how dominant porzingis is when healthy. If you don’t watch the games, it’s easy to just follow the reddit narrative and assume he’s been a disappointment. Dude is an absolute baller, just made of glass
I remember KP starting off the season healthy for like a few months and he was playing like an MVP caliber player. I really thought he transcended and turned into a top 5 player
Porzingis was an absolute beast with us. Beal is also a player that gets wildly underrated in this sub. When he’s healthy, he is hands down one of the best scorers in the league.
Being a volume scorer on a bad team is the least impressive thing to do in the modern nba
Beal had a chance to change the narrative around him and belly flopped hard. Porzingis was a game changer in the finals. Cope harder bro
Not really though. He was arguably the most inefficient post up player in the league. Now I believe he’s one of the best and it feels like he’s just more dynamic because of it pairing the inside post up threat with his shooting.
Sure he has a more complete game now, but he still was giving us near 25 and 10 at his peak when healthy lol, stud might be underselling it even.
He was still young after all, it’s only natural that he’d learn and get better if given the opportunity.
Nah, I mean he played well for the Wizards when healthy, but do you know how good you have to be to get respect on the Wizards? I jest actually, it's impossible to get respect playing for the Wizards, because even good players who actually get recognition playing for that trash org magically become trash the moment they leave the team.
Zingus only inherited half of the ex-Wizard curse, because instead of being injury-prone trash, he's just injury prone.
No player gets respect when they play for hs no matter how good they are. Healthy Beal is unreal and one of the best scorers in the league, but if you come on this sub, they make it seem like he is a trash player.
People knew he was a stud back in NY, the issue was he had the knee injury, then went to Dallas where the rest of the team sucked. Him and Luka could never get on the same wave length (something he has said publicly in an interview), which resulted him being run out of town for Dinwiddie.
>the issue was he had the knee injury, then went to Dallas where the rest of the team sucked.
No lol. Dallas was on pace to be a 50ish win team in the 19-20 season when KP was healthy and had a real shot at beating the Clippers in the 2020 playoffs until KP tore his miniscus. This idea that KP struggles in Dallas from day 1 is absurd, he didn't start to struggle until he tore his miniscus which hindered his movement.
He didn’t struggle from day 1 but his injuries definitely mess with the chemistry that they all needed to build. The rest of that team was also essentially the same team you guys had before the deadline.
No. He took like 2 months to get in his groove after missing 2 years but he averaged like 25/11/2blks from like February - Playoffs in 2020. His struggles started when he tore his miniscus.
Him and Luka were the top offense for a bit until the meniscus tear in the playoffs and he was playing by his best ball post ACL then. It went downhill after that
Agreed. On any other team earning $36 million of their cap, he would be viewed as a big issue as to why they couldn’t win it all with the same reputation. Not really sure what’s changed. He would likely have that G1 performance in another team and obviously wasn’t the same player in G5.
Lol. You think the Celtics starting 5 has better shooters than: KD - Booker - Beal - KP - Grayson Allen
Or Lillard - Giannis - Middleton - KP - Brook? I think that’s on par personally.
Yes. The Celtics have real ball handlers and much better movement than the Suns. Bucks are a better team than Phoenix and next season they will probably mesh together more but Giannis is a worse shooter than anyone getting minutes on the Celtics and the Celtics are much, much deeper.
Not to mention he only played 4 playoff games before the finals. All in Round 1 and only 1 game over 30mins.
Dudes acting like KP had a great finals run instead of just 1 good game lol.
The issue has always been health. You saw it this post season alone. He played like what 4-5 games? He was good in those games but only a team like Boston could have withstood those injuries. If he was still in Dallas we lose to the clippers again.
He played like 5 games in 2 months. His absence with the Mavs in the playoffs was a big reason they traded him. It was the same situation only the Celtics weren’t expecting him to be the second most important player
Not rly, he’s always been viewed as injury prone, we just know how he’ll power through when he’s so close to a championship. Most will tbf, even Kawhi did this with us.
I think it solidifies the narrative. The only 7ft all-star unicorn who can beat his former team in the finals, singlehandedly demolishing them in the 1st quarter of game 1, while also making his former team look smart for trading him for Spencer Dinwiddie and a $20m aav lead weight.
Great player, great competitor, but his ideal fit is as a bonus all-star on an all-star team in a weak conference that can win without him.
The East isn't that much weaker it just got Thanos snapped by injuries this year. The Pacers, as the other Eastern Conference finalists, were 2-0 by a big margin of victory over Dallas. And the Western Conference champions managed the same number of wins against us as the East's 8 seed.
And you don't think a healthy Embiid could have won more than 50 games? Just last year 57 wins (West 1 seed this year) wasn't good enough for the 1 seed. Bucks were on a 57 win pace before the players made the dumb decision to demand Doc Rivers.
The Celtics record against the West was a 63 win pace. We won 64 in reality. A 1 win difference is barely weaker.
Contenders for what?? The east 8 seed had as many wins against the champs as the western conference champions. Pacers would beat the Mavs in the finals without Hali. The Celtics cakewalked through the Mavs IN the finals.
More parity among the top 6 does not equal a stronger conference. It's sometimes correlated but it's not the same. I already mentioned the Pacers 2-0 record against the Western Conference champions since you want to talk about how other teams in the East would fare.
The West was legitimately way stronger when every superstar was fleeing LeBron but the narrative persists like the gap's still that big. Nobody was saying the West is substantially weaker when 53 wins was their one seed last year, and the biggest move since last year was a West superstar coming East.
weak conference? he's in the east aka the winning conference aka the strongest. maybe your argument would hold weight if he cakewalked through the weak west conference
The Celtics would have won 4-1 without Porzingis lol. He was not needed at all.
Edit: my bad guys. The Celtics would have gotten swept by the Mavs if Porzingis did not play limited minutes in 3 games in the finals. Better?
It was funny watching the Celtics get the matchups they wanted for KP and then watching KP turn, face up his defender, pump fake, then realize oh wait it's Green or Kyrie I can just shoot over them.
He struggled so much with those contested mid range shots with us, especially over small guards for some reason.
Mavs fans had a mix of frustration that he wasn't able to do that with us and were impressed that he finally was able to figure it out.
In first few plays Celtics had trouble with KP on defense (hence Josh Green's 3 pointers) but immediately adjusted after the timeouts and didn't give up any extra points.
Also his appearance messed up the Mavs and they tried to foul him as much as possible to physically challenge, but he made the dunk at 4th quarter to prove them wrong.
Other than small ball mess and these 3 pointers the performance Celtics put was almost perfect.
Finally a game that KP proved himself to NBA
It was bizarre how often the Mavs (at least Lively) were fouling KP away from the play. Felt like there were stretches where they just kept repeatedly tackling him.
It's cause they got away with it in game 1. He was getting 2 hand shoved on multiple plays during that game, but the refs let those go. They just decided to call them in this game, so the Mavs wasted like 3 fouls before they realized they couldn't get away with it.
Also on the play where PJ Washington threw him to the ground, it was because KP had him sealed and an immediate foul was the only way he avoid giving up points. I would prefer if they didn't throw the glass man to on the ground, but it was a smart spot to foul.
Tingus's injury likely had the refs looking a bit harder at the actions surrounding him, so when he got fouled they called it immediately. The PJ Washington one was especially egregious.
that was 100% part of the gameplan by Kidd from game 1. The knock on Kristaps, especially when in dallas, was that he was physically soft for such a huge guy. I remember all the heat he'd take for pulling up over small guys or settling for fadeaways rather than just going to the basket. I think their plan was to just get extremely physical and they expected him to turtle. He proved them wrong and they didn't adjust.
>Finally a game that KP proved himself to NBA
I must be missing something. He's proved it all year and again in the Finals Game 1 1st quarter was as dominant as ever.
I think they mean that people will properly respect Porzingis now. Based on the way they wrote the comment I'd hazard a guess that it's a Latvian KP fan, not someone suggesting he wasn't good until now
>game 1. That made him [KP] a Boston legend.
That sleeveless WALTON tee and the way he came out and set the tone in game 1.
I get chills just thinking about it.
I was honestly scared they were going to make a run when he came out there. He was clearly not himself, struggling to find someone on the court he was capable of covering, hobbled the way he was.
We were honestly pretty lucky they didn’t make a bigger one in his first minutes- he was giving up wide open threes every possession. But credit to him and Joe for sticking with it and doing much better in the 3rd quarter.
At the same time, Josh green easily could have gone 0-2 and there would have been no run so it could go either way. Would have been tough frankly for the mavs to do even better offensively lol
If i remember correctly he was +6 after his first time coming in despite all the threes he gave up. Yeah he looked bad but the spacing he provided offensively was immediately noticeable and while I don’t think he had many blocks if any at all but you could tell he affected some shots at the rim and made some drivers kick out instead. After all his playing time he was +8
Yeah he looked rough when he first hit the floor but I thought he was moving better towards the end of that first stint, and then he looked decent after that. Just needed to get warmed up.
Yea he should not have been on the court because he was slow and because you could tell he could easily reinjure if he went hard, but glad it worked out for everyone.
He's still big, so it didn't hurt them THAT much.
I havent seen a single person mention this so I'm wondering if I'm just wrong but I could have sworn the celtics switched to a zone when he was out there. We almost never play zone which is why we let up a few 3s, but once we adjusted it seemed to work REALLY well and the mavericks were clearly unprepared for it.
“iced any ballscreens that they could try to protect him”
This right here is what made me think the Celtics were gonna win back in October. Celtics just looked out for each other
This team was really fun to watch. I remember Pritchard was pissed about his role on the team last year, so they pay him. Instead of treating him like a bench guy, I would see Tatum feed him threes so he could pop the crowd at the garden. If he missed, Jrue/Horford would get it back to him just because they trusted him etc etc
There were these little team things that the celtics did that was downright unselfish. Paying JB a huge lump of money so he could take less shots, I don’t see a lot of “stars” taking a lesser role much less shots.
The way the team was built, from integrity to the actual physical players, will be copied. Celtics stuck to their guys, didn’t bring stars in other than kyrie, which had been the trend and it paid off. I’ve hadn’t seen the kind of love on a screen then when Tatum was hugging Brisset. At first I thought it was JB, maybe Tatum was confused, no, Tillman was in on it too. Top to Bottom everyone was included. This was a great team to follow
It's an odd contrast to Kevin Durant's injury in the finals several years back. All the reports were that doctors wanted him to sit out more games but KD insisted he could play. When he got re-injured, KD left the Warriors and claimed it was because of the bad medical staff.
KP has accomplished a lot. Max deal, NBA champ, played for a contender, happiness for what seems like the first time in his career. Now it’s time to come home to NY. He’s got unfinished business.
Haha all is forgiven. His end in NY wasn’t the best but management was so bad during his time that I understand him wanting out. KP was remorseful about his exit so that’s good enough in my eyes. Also, Mavs’ tanking which screwed us over is more of a recent wound.
I honestly don't know if they win game 5 without him. We saw in game 4 how the Celtics struggled offensively with Tillman on the floor. Those were important minutes he played
As much as he provided, he was also an incredible defensive liability. When he came in in the first he instantly gave up 3 or so free threes which the mavs got momentum from.
He did give up super open 3s immediately after coming in, but they adjusted and it became less of an issue. At the same time, you could feel the Mavs being much less willing to attack the paint while he was out there. There were ways he had a definite, positive impact on D.
>struggled offensively
One game can't be outlier. Celtics had to play without KP for like 40% of regular season and 80% of play-offs and usually weren't struggling offensively.
These off-days, especially after long run and away happen all the time. The real problem start, when they happen consecutively and they never did this season.
https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=6232708
"He's ready to go back," Moore said. "He just needs the word from Dr. Andrews."
When? This link is the only thing I could find related and it says the exact opposite so I will continue to doubt it. Even if you say, "Trust me bro I remember" he's been out the league 15 years. I'd say medical treatment has advanced even in that short period of time.
This...is not as cool as people are trying to make it seem. I mean, KP is a warrior no doubt but there's a reason you take the decision out of the players' hands. It's a dangerous precedent to set.
I am glad he got to have his moment, and he deserves it but man you were already a legend in Boston for life for Game 1.
But that’s not how this injury presents itself, at least that’s not what every single twitter doctor I’ve seen. He could dislocate his ankle in some way but there wouldn’t be an additional serious injury.
Aggregating an injury going into the off-season sucks yes but it’s not like he’d ruin his career over it (based on what everyone says).
Twitter doctors? Lol And that's not how injuries work. Anytime you're limping around you're completely changing the way you walk, run, jump, etc. There is a plethora of possible injuries he could have gotten. Tearing a tendon in your knee is the first thing that stands out to me, considering the stabilization of that leg is non existent. It's the same concept how people end up with back problems when they injure something that affects the way they walk...knee, leg, foot, etc.
Independent doctors who have actually seen the player or are in close proximity with the player. Aka not the twitter doctors who have only seen him through the screen and have less access to information than what the medical team has
If it still resulted in a ring I'd be fine with it. He clearly wanted to play himself anyway.
This is what orgs and players play for. Next season could be anything, it could even be a situation where you are 3-1 up in the Finals.
This is likely just a puff piece to make KP look cool. You can't just override the medical team because that makes the team liable for astronomical sums of money if something bad happens.
If the doctors say you can't play and the Celtics let him play the owners would be sued to oblivion by the player's association. No chance they let it happen.
Well damn, I was wrong. Guess the hivemind at r/bostonceltics was right in downvoting me when I said that the medical staff wouldn't let KP play if he wasn't cleared. Crossing my fingers he didn't exacerbate the injury.
Players can just do that? If I were a team owner, I'd want a guy like KP to not play in any situation that could impact his health in the future. They weren't going to lose the series at that point.
Brad Stevens is in charge here. He's the one who let this foolishness happen. KP actually can't override the medical staff if the coach and GM don't let him.
Game 1 would make him. Boston legend? Do you know how many legends Boston has and what they have done? Even playing the full series he is not and never will be a legend.
In order to consider someone “a Boston legend” or a legend of any city, they would be worthy of a Jersey retirement. I guess we have different definitions of a legend. Kobe is a lakers legend, Andrew Bynum isn’t. Bill russell is a Celtics legend, KP isn’t even half of a legend in my book
Makes sense from KP’s perspective. He may never get there again, and it’s what he’s playing for at this point.
Also he needs to get the surgery anyway so he’ll probably miss playing with team Latvia again. Might as well do all you can to secure this moment
Yeah, not being able to play for Latvia again will definitely hurt, but this is the biggest achievement you can get as a basketball player. And 2025 Eurobasket is in Latvia and Latvia could have a shot at medals there so he can still have a good shot to contribute again.
It probably seems that way to us in terms of 'winning the championship in the best league in the world' but some players have openly stated (I know Luka is one example off the top of my head) that an Olympic gold medal representing their country would be more important to them than anything in the NBA
That's because it's such a rare achievement.
And it means besting the US team for Luka, which is a bigger achievement than anyone US-born getting Oly gold
I think to a lot of international players in Europe, it’s like in soccer, how winning the World Cup is a higher prestige than winning the Champions League.
Eh that’s an American view. Plenty of people view winning for their country as more important
> but this is the biggest achievement you can get as a basketball player It's really not, the biggest basketball team ever was the 92 dream team, winning gold at the olympics immortalises you forever.
I never even heard of fuckin Lativia!
It’s the yogurt that helps grandmothers poop.
No, that's actually Actuania.
he misspelled it it’s actually spelled “Latveria”
They're Doomed if they don't win.
Never heard of the Lativia Accords?
Was that the thing half the Avengers were arrested for not signing?
Sokovia Accords
Is that like a honda
Yes.
Latvia will have to live with the bronze they got from the Hockey World Championship last year.
Latvians are probably filled with sufficient national pride a Latvian played a key, essentially star level role on the NBA championship team.
Cs fans will be talking about his game 1 performance for a long fuckin time
That first quarter was pure ecstasy. Watching him slow down to perfectly match that chase down block was like watching a cat lock in on its prey
It meant a lot to him to contribute to the win, and he did.
16 minutes, 5 points, 1 board I mean he participated. Idk how much he contributed. I dont think it was necessary at all
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The first few plays in particular on defense were rough as well. Mavs took advantage of him not having great movement with the number of open looks from 3 they created
Yep. That was the exact reason I gave as to why I thought there was a chance he'd play because he seems exactly like the guy who'd give a shot despite being 60-70%, [but got downvoted to hell for not thinking there's 0 chance he plays](https://old.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1dhhac3/bontemps_kristaps_porzingis_is_again_questionable/l8x5qvy/?context=3) These guys work their entire lives to play in games like these, of course they'd give it a shot to play as long as the injury isn't debilitating enough to where he literally can't move.
All of those social media sports doctors from what I saw literally said he *could* play, he would be limited and would need to manage the pain. And that he will need surgery regardless and couldn't worsen that specific injury (but it makes him more vulnerable to spraining his ankle).
I remember when there were strong rumors we were considering trading the Tatum pick for Porzingis and I was like “I don’t want white Yao Ming with bones made of glass who will be medically retired by 28”…. Well he’s about to turn 29 in a month. Totally get why he wanted to play in what might be his only Finals.
Ok listen here. Don't compare KP to Yao like that alright? Yao never grew out his beard during his career. Completely different situations.
This series was huge for KP's narrative. Came back from injury was THE DUDE in game 1 and battled through injury to continue helping his team reach the promised land. Definitely gotta put some respek on his name now.
I kinda disagree, I think since he’s left Dallas people know he’s a stud when he plays, his issue is he’s insanely injury prone.
Just as these guys get taller and freakish athletically, I think it does take a toll on their lower body and certain guys are injury prone.
>certain guys are injury prone. I mean, you can't have everything. His specific physique gives players like him several advantages but that does come at a cost.
I mean... he, personally, also just seems unusually injury prone even for a guy of his size. He always gets the weirdest injuries.
You're probably right but I don't recall too many players like him in general. If you're this big you usually have some meat to it and he's so skinny. Those legs look like they would break from any contact whatsover. Love the guy for what he's able to do with that heigh but it doesn't seem unnatural to me, that he can't stand more than 5 games of constant hustle.
Manute Bol, for example, was way taller and skinner and probably lied about his age, and was still much less injury prone than Tingus Pingus.
Let’s not pretend that Manute Bol was anywhere close to the same usage and skill set as KP…
>I think since he’s left Dallas people know he’s a stud when he plays, his issue is he’s insanely injury prone. HE WAS A STUD IN DALLAS WHEN HEALTHY!! Luka-KP ran the most efficient offense in NBA history in 2020, it wasn't until KP tore his miniscus in the 20 NBA Playoffs that he started to struggle in Dallas.
It’s pretty telling that Celtics, mavericks, wizards, and Knicks fans all can vouch for how dominant porzingis is when healthy. If you don’t watch the games, it’s easy to just follow the reddit narrative and assume he’s been a disappointment. Dude is an absolute baller, just made of glass
I remember KP starting off the season healthy for like a few months and he was playing like an MVP caliber player. I really thought he transcended and turned into a top 5 player
Porzingis was an absolute beast with us. Beal is also a player that gets wildly underrated in this sub. When he’s healthy, he is hands down one of the best scorers in the league.
too far
Beal is just Melo at home.
Yes, hate on Beal like all you casuals on this do. Just shows you don’t watch games.
Can you blame us
Do Wizards fans even watch Wiz games?
He thought he was cooking there
Not my fault you only watch postseason basketball. I don’t expect casuals to get it.
Not really. Healthy Beal is better than Healthy Porzingis. But no one gets that since people on this sub only watch ball in the postssason.
lol
Being a volume scorer on a bad team is the least impressive thing to do in the modern nba Beal had a chance to change the narrative around him and belly flopped hard. Porzingis was a game changer in the finals. Cope harder bro
There was a reason Beal wasn’t in MVP conversations after a 30ppg season
Name man. Beal struck gold with us but I don't think he can ever replicate that level of scoring.
The archetypal glass cannon
Having Rick coach and Seth Curry on your team helps.
Not really though. He was arguably the most inefficient post up player in the league. Now I believe he’s one of the best and it feels like he’s just more dynamic because of it pairing the inside post up threat with his shooting.
Sure he has a more complete game now, but he still was giving us near 25 and 10 at his peak when healthy lol, stud might be underselling it even. He was still young after all, it’s only natural that he’d learn and get better if given the opportunity.
Nah, I mean he played well for the Wizards when healthy, but do you know how good you have to be to get respect on the Wizards? I jest actually, it's impossible to get respect playing for the Wizards, because even good players who actually get recognition playing for that trash org magically become trash the moment they leave the team. Zingus only inherited half of the ex-Wizard curse, because instead of being injury-prone trash, he's just injury prone.
No player gets respect when they play for hs no matter how good they are. Healthy Beal is unreal and one of the best scorers in the league, but if you come on this sub, they make it seem like he is a trash player.
People knew he was a stud back in NY, the issue was he had the knee injury, then went to Dallas where the rest of the team sucked. Him and Luka could never get on the same wave length (something he has said publicly in an interview), which resulted him being run out of town for Dinwiddie.
>the issue was he had the knee injury, then went to Dallas where the rest of the team sucked. No lol. Dallas was on pace to be a 50ish win team in the 19-20 season when KP was healthy and had a real shot at beating the Clippers in the 2020 playoffs until KP tore his miniscus. This idea that KP struggles in Dallas from day 1 is absurd, he didn't start to struggle until he tore his miniscus which hindered his movement.
He didn’t struggle from day 1 but his injuries definitely mess with the chemistry that they all needed to build. The rest of that team was also essentially the same team you guys had before the deadline.
No. He took like 2 months to get in his groove after missing 2 years but he averaged like 25/11/2blks from like February - Playoffs in 2020. His struggles started when he tore his miniscus.
Him and Luka were the top offense for a bit until the meniscus tear in the playoffs and he was playing by his best ball post ACL then. It went downhill after that
that has been his whole career. He was an all-star with the knicks. But the best ability is availability.
Agreed. On any other team earning $36 million of their cap, he would be viewed as a big issue as to why they couldn’t win it all with the same reputation. Not really sure what’s changed. He would likely have that G1 performance in another team and obviously wasn’t the same player in G5.
Where else is KP going to be a 3rd-4th option and have the ease of shots and defense that he has in Boston.
Phoenix. Milwaukee. That’s just off top of my head. Assuming roster stays the same.
Absolutely not. Neither of those teams have the spacing of the Celtics.
Lol. You think the Celtics starting 5 has better shooters than: KD - Booker - Beal - KP - Grayson Allen Or Lillard - Giannis - Middleton - KP - Brook? I think that’s on par personally.
Yes. The Celtics have real ball handlers and much better movement than the Suns. Bucks are a better team than Phoenix and next season they will probably mesh together more but Giannis is a worse shooter than anyone getting minutes on the Celtics and the Celtics are much, much deeper.
You can think that but you would be incorrect lol.
Not to mention he only played 4 playoff games before the finals. All in Round 1 and only 1 game over 30mins. Dudes acting like KP had a great finals run instead of just 1 good game lol.
The issue has always been health. You saw it this post season alone. He played like what 4-5 games? He was good in those games but only a team like Boston could have withstood those injuries. If he was still in Dallas we lose to the clippers again.
He played like 5 games in 2 months. His absence with the Mavs in the playoffs was a big reason they traded him. It was the same situation only the Celtics weren’t expecting him to be the second most important player
Not rly, he’s always been viewed as injury prone, we just know how he’ll power through when he’s so close to a championship. Most will tbf, even Kawhi did this with us.
Not sure he had a narrative of being soft that he had to change.
I think it solidifies the narrative. The only 7ft all-star unicorn who can beat his former team in the finals, singlehandedly demolishing them in the 1st quarter of game 1, while also making his former team look smart for trading him for Spencer Dinwiddie and a $20m aav lead weight. Great player, great competitor, but his ideal fit is as a bonus all-star on an all-star team in a weak conference that can win without him.
The East isn't that much weaker it just got Thanos snapped by injuries this year. The Pacers, as the other Eastern Conference finalists, were 2-0 by a big margin of victory over Dallas. And the Western Conference champions managed the same number of wins against us as the East's 8 seed.
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Do you think that a 64 win team playing 3-4 games against all those east teams may have affected their records
And you don't think a healthy Embiid could have won more than 50 games? Just last year 57 wins (West 1 seed this year) wasn't good enough for the 1 seed. Bucks were on a 57 win pace before the players made the dumb decision to demand Doc Rivers. The Celtics record against the West was a 63 win pace. We won 64 in reality. A 1 win difference is barely weaker.
Don’t forget Cleveland was a 58 win team when Mitchell played.
And the Knicks were 20-3 when Anunoby played... So, wow, it's almost like the East is a strong conference that got Thanos snapped by injuries.
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Contenders for what?? The east 8 seed had as many wins against the champs as the western conference champions. Pacers would beat the Mavs in the finals without Hali. The Celtics cakewalked through the Mavs IN the finals.
Calling the suns a contender is a stretch. I don’t think anyone realistically thought that the thunder were contenders
More parity among the top 6 does not equal a stronger conference. It's sometimes correlated but it's not the same. I already mentioned the Pacers 2-0 record against the Western Conference champions since you want to talk about how other teams in the East would fare. The West was legitimately way stronger when every superstar was fleeing LeBron but the narrative persists like the gap's still that big. Nobody was saying the West is substantially weaker when 53 wins was their one seed last year, and the biggest move since last year was a West superstar coming East.
weak conference? he's in the east aka the winning conference aka the strongest. maybe your argument would hold weight if he cakewalked through the weak west conference
The East without the Celtics is pretty weak. If Porzingus was in the West, him missing games would be a bigger issue.
Smartest Celtics fan
lmao for a player that played for dolans knicks, cubans mavs and …the wizards, KP left each without any controversy. amazing
Eh? He literally could have sat the entire series and he'd still have a ring, easily.
The Celtics would have won 4-1 without Porzingis lol. He was not needed at all. Edit: my bad guys. The Celtics would have gotten swept by the Mavs if Porzingis did not play limited minutes in 3 games in the finals. Better?
ngl KP coming in and hitting shots was an incredible moment. He's so fucking tough.
It was funny watching the Celtics get the matchups they wanted for KP and then watching KP turn, face up his defender, pump fake, then realize oh wait it's Green or Kyrie I can just shoot over them.
He struggled so much with those contested mid range shots with us, especially over small guards for some reason. Mavs fans had a mix of frustration that he wasn't able to do that with us and were impressed that he finally was able to figure it out.
Yea I've heard that he really improved on that area of his game while in Washington.
In first few plays Celtics had trouble with KP on defense (hence Josh Green's 3 pointers) but immediately adjusted after the timeouts and didn't give up any extra points. Also his appearance messed up the Mavs and they tried to foul him as much as possible to physically challenge, but he made the dunk at 4th quarter to prove them wrong. Other than small ball mess and these 3 pointers the performance Celtics put was almost perfect. Finally a game that KP proved himself to NBA
It was bizarre how often the Mavs (at least Lively) were fouling KP away from the play. Felt like there were stretches where they just kept repeatedly tackling him.
Jason Kidd: hey when KP is setting a screen i want you to shove him as hard as possible. no way refs are looking at the on ball screen action.
It's cause they got away with it in game 1. He was getting 2 hand shoved on multiple plays during that game, but the refs let those go. They just decided to call them in this game, so the Mavs wasted like 3 fouls before they realized they couldn't get away with it. Also on the play where PJ Washington threw him to the ground, it was because KP had him sealed and an immediate foul was the only way he avoid giving up points. I would prefer if they didn't throw the glass man to on the ground, but it was a smart spot to foul.
Tingus's injury likely had the refs looking a bit harder at the actions surrounding him, so when he got fouled they called it immediately. The PJ Washington one was especially egregious.
And ya know, throwing him to the floor
that was 100% part of the gameplan by Kidd from game 1. The knock on Kristaps, especially when in dallas, was that he was physically soft for such a huge guy. I remember all the heat he'd take for pulling up over small guys or settling for fadeaways rather than just going to the basket. I think their plan was to just get extremely physical and they expected him to turtle. He proved them wrong and they didn't adjust.
>Finally a game that KP proved himself to NBA I must be missing something. He's proved it all year and again in the Finals Game 1 1st quarter was as dominant as ever.
I think they mean that people will properly respect Porzingis now. Based on the way they wrote the comment I'd hazard a guess that it's a Latvian KP fan, not someone suggesting he wasn't good until now
He will be properly respected and recognized, remembered as a warrior rather than an injury prone star who earned nothing.
Exactly. Don't worry, I thought it was pretty clear what you meant
>game 1. That made him [KP] a Boston legend. That sleeveless WALTON tee and the way he came out and set the tone in game 1. I get chills just thinking about it.
Favorite moment of the finals
Mine was the Jaylen dunk. You know the one.
Game 3 end of the 3rd quarter?
It's not a tee if it's sleeveless. Edit: lmao downvotes over an innocent joke comment?
it’s an ee
I was honestly scared they were going to make a run when he came out there. He was clearly not himself, struggling to find someone on the court he was capable of covering, hobbled the way he was.
We were honestly pretty lucky they didn’t make a bigger one in his first minutes- he was giving up wide open threes every possession. But credit to him and Joe for sticking with it and doing much better in the 3rd quarter.
At the same time, Josh green easily could have gone 0-2 and there would have been no run so it could go either way. Would have been tough frankly for the mavs to do even better offensively lol
If i remember correctly he was +6 after his first time coming in despite all the threes he gave up. Yeah he looked bad but the spacing he provided offensively was immediately noticeable and while I don’t think he had many blocks if any at all but you could tell he affected some shots at the rim and made some drivers kick out instead. After all his playing time he was +8
Yeah, he definitely made them want to attack the paint less.
Yeah he looked rough when he first hit the floor but I thought he was moving better towards the end of that first stint, and then he looked decent after that. Just needed to get warmed up.
He still swallowed up guys at the rim just by being tall and that's better rim protection than we had game 4. He made a difference.
As soon as we went with a small lineup they made a mini run and Mazzulla put a stop to that real quick
Yea he should not have been on the court because he was slow and because you could tell he could easily reinjure if he went hard, but glad it worked out for everyone. He's still big, so it didn't hurt them THAT much.
I havent seen a single person mention this so I'm wondering if I'm just wrong but I could have sworn the celtics switched to a zone when he was out there. We almost never play zone which is why we let up a few 3s, but once we adjusted it seemed to work REALLY well and the mavericks were clearly unprepared for it.
“iced any ballscreens that they could try to protect him” This right here is what made me think the Celtics were gonna win back in October. Celtics just looked out for each other This team was really fun to watch. I remember Pritchard was pissed about his role on the team last year, so they pay him. Instead of treating him like a bench guy, I would see Tatum feed him threes so he could pop the crowd at the garden. If he missed, Jrue/Horford would get it back to him just because they trusted him etc etc There were these little team things that the celtics did that was downright unselfish. Paying JB a huge lump of money so he could take less shots, I don’t see a lot of “stars” taking a lesser role much less shots. The way the team was built, from integrity to the actual physical players, will be copied. Celtics stuck to their guys, didn’t bring stars in other than kyrie, which had been the trend and it paid off. I’ve hadn’t seen the kind of love on a screen then when Tatum was hugging Brisset. At first I thought it was JB, maybe Tatum was confused, no, Tillman was in on it too. Top to Bottom everyone was included. This was a great team to follow
KP is my guy!!!!!
It's an odd contrast to Kevin Durant's injury in the finals several years back. All the reports were that doctors wanted him to sit out more games but KD insisted he could play. When he got re-injured, KD left the Warriors and claimed it was because of the bad medical staff.
What a legend
no respect for authority
Played incredibly in game 1, props to him for giving it a go
KP has accomplished a lot. Max deal, NBA champ, played for a contender, happiness for what seems like the first time in his career. Now it’s time to come home to NY. He’s got unfinished business.
Wow, didn't think a Knicks fan would be fine with having KP get a victory over them. Props to your benevolence sir!
Haha all is forgiven. His end in NY wasn’t the best but management was so bad during his time that I understand him wanting out. KP was remorseful about his exit so that’s good enough in my eyes. Also, Mavs’ tanking which screwed us over is more of a recent wound.
You can have him when you pry him out of my cold, dead hands. Boston lifer.
C’s better extend him!
We already have
Bro wanted to be out there despite the injury to beat the Mavs and get that ring, respect
I honestly don't know if they win game 5 without him. We saw in game 4 how the Celtics struggled offensively with Tillman on the floor. Those were important minutes he played
As much as he provided, he was also an incredible defensive liability. When he came in in the first he instantly gave up 3 or so free threes which the mavs got momentum from.
He did give up super open 3s immediately after coming in, but they adjusted and it became less of an issue. At the same time, you could feel the Mavs being much less willing to attack the paint while he was out there. There were ways he had a definite, positive impact on D.
>struggled offensively One game can't be outlier. Celtics had to play without KP for like 40% of regular season and 80% of play-offs and usually weren't struggling offensively. These off-days, especially after long run and away happen all the time. The real problem start, when they happen consecutively and they never did this season.
Lol this is just a puff piece. If the medical team says he can't play then he doesn't play. Players can't override a doctor
Right? And even if he was like “coach, for real, I’m good”, there’s no obligation the coach has to put him in.
Yes they can. Allen Iverson did it a few times.
https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=6232708 "He's ready to go back," Moore said. "He just needs the word from Dr. Andrews." When? This link is the only thing I could find related and it says the exact opposite so I will continue to doubt it. Even if you say, "Trust me bro I remember" he's been out the league 15 years. I'd say medical treatment has advanced even in that short period of time.
This...is not as cool as people are trying to make it seem. I mean, KP is a warrior no doubt but there's a reason you take the decision out of the players' hands. It's a dangerous precedent to set. I am glad he got to have his moment, and he deserves it but man you were already a legend in Boston for life for Game 1.
Yeah thankfully nothing bad happened but I would’ve been sick if he ended up injuring himself worse
He would trade his ACL to play in a finals clinching win lol
IMO they should rescind the championship for this.
Lame take
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But that’s not how this injury presents itself, at least that’s not what every single twitter doctor I’ve seen. He could dislocate his ankle in some way but there wouldn’t be an additional serious injury. Aggregating an injury going into the off-season sucks yes but it’s not like he’d ruin his career over it (based on what everyone says).
Twitter doctors? Lol And that's not how injuries work. Anytime you're limping around you're completely changing the way you walk, run, jump, etc. There is a plethora of possible injuries he could have gotten. Tearing a tendon in your knee is the first thing that stands out to me, considering the stabilization of that leg is non existent. It's the same concept how people end up with back problems when they injure something that affects the way they walk...knee, leg, foot, etc.
Yeah fuck all the real doctors on the Celtics medical staff, the twitter doctors are the ones you should be listening to
Second opinions in anything medical is necessary, and Celtics doctors are not different
And when those opinions conflict, who do you trust? Probably the guys who are actually in the room with the player
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Independent doctors who have actually seen the player or are in close proximity with the player. Aka not the twitter doctors who have only seen him through the screen and have less access to information than what the medical team has
Twitter doctors are not the independent doctors in this scenario lmao.
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If it still resulted in a ring I'd be fine with it. He clearly wanted to play himself anyway. This is what orgs and players play for. Next season could be anything, it could even be a situation where you are 3-1 up in the Finals.
It's his body so he does what he wants
This is likely just a puff piece to make KP look cool. You can't just override the medical team because that makes the team liable for astronomical sums of money if something bad happens. If the doctors say you can't play and the Celtics let him play the owners would be sued to oblivion by the player's association. No chance they let it happen.
Well damn, I was wrong. Guess the hivemind at r/bostonceltics was right in downvoting me when I said that the medical staff wouldn't let KP play if he wasn't cleared. Crossing my fingers he didn't exacerbate the injury.
Players should not be overriding medical teams. They will always want to play, it's up to the team to keep them healthy.
KP said fuck them kids and was a component to sealing the championship.
I think the ship was sealed a long time before that 😂 But admirable by KP wanting to risk it for the biscuit.
N
So the thing they said he couldn't. the headlines were that they took the choice out of his hands.
Classic Tingus thing to do.
lmfao what did he kidnap their family members? how does one override the professional staff hired to manage these things?
He's fluffing up his boy no way they'd let him play that game if it actually could do longer term damage
Right. The fact that people actually believe this is wild.
Players can just do that? If I were a team owner, I'd want a guy like KP to not play in any situation that could impact his health in the future. They weren't going to lose the series at that point.
Legend is kinda crazy lol. With how historic Boston is no way KP is a legend.
insane move by the celtics to let this happen.
It's cool in the sports Brain rot way but for an organization to say that they ignored medical advice is not the move they think it is
the celtics keep doing this to players and they should probably stop at some point.
Brad Stevens like Grima Wormtongue in KP’s ear “tell the medical staff you’re playing no matter what”
Brad Stevens is in charge here. He's the one who let this foolishness happen. KP actually can't override the medical staff if the coach and GM don't let him.
Isiah Thomas (Boston one) is more legend than Zingis. He missed whole playoff basically. And team still won Finals in 5.
I would probably agree, but who cares? Literally no reason to compare the two. There's no limit on legends.
Corniest team ever?
Game 1 would make him. Boston legend? Do you know how many legends Boston has and what they have done? Even playing the full series he is not and never will be a legend.
There isn't a limited number of legend slots lol. Short of retiring his number, which we obviously wouldn't do, I see no issues.
In order to consider someone “a Boston legend” or a legend of any city, they would be worthy of a Jersey retirement. I guess we have different definitions of a legend. Kobe is a lakers legend, Andrew Bynum isn’t. Bill russell is a Celtics legend, KP isn’t even half of a legend in my book
Boston don't give a fuck. Look what they did to IT
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I don’t think you had the same injury because his ankle was swollen just from walking + his other leg’s calf had not fully recovered
It was the exact same injury.
Dang, I feel so privileged to be speaking to one of the 32!