The Boston Celtics defeated the Miami Heat 102-88 in Game 4 on Monday to take a 3-1 series lead, but they may have lost Kristaps Porzingis in the process.
Porzingis exited late in the second quarter with right calf tightness, the Celtics announced. He appeared to roll his opposite ankle a few possessions and was noticeably limping before pulling up lame with the calf injury. In a positive bit of news, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Porzingis will undergo imaging on Tuesday, but as it stands, it does not appear that he's suffered an Achilles injury.
Kristaps Porzingis actually rolled his ankle and was already limping a couple possessions before his non-contact injury. Here's the sequence: pic.twitter.com/hP6SBlzKok
— Tomek Kordylewski (@Timi_093) April 30, 2024
In the moment, it didn't look great. It was non-contact, and Porzingis had his head buried in his jersey as he limped to the locker room. He left the arena is a walking boot.
Kristaps Porzingis heading out of the Kaseya Center with a walking boot on his right foot pic.twitter.com/lUCwjVOE3A
— Josue Pavón (@Joe_Sway) April 30, 2024
It's now a big-picture situation for Boston, which, barring a catastrophic collapse, has this Miami series in hand and can begin prioritizing Porzingis' long-term postseason outlook.
We'll wait to see what, exactly, Porzingis is dealing with, but if it's concerning at all, you'd have to imagine there's no way he plays in Game 5 on Wednesday, and moving forward it's worth questioning whether the Celtics would consider sitting Porzingis for their presumed second-round series against either Cleveland or Orlando.
Neither of those teams should be able to threaten Boston even without Porzingis, who becomes a major necessity starting in the conference finals, where, as it looks right now, Boston could be facing the Knicks. Beyond that, certainly Porzingis would be needed in the Finals should Boston make it that far.
So yeah, prioritizing Porzingis' long-term postseason outlook will likely be the play for Boston no matter how this diagnosis comes back, but let's all hope for positive news as we've had enough injuries already take their toll on this postseason.
