Getty
The Boston Celtics kept their second-best record in the NBA intact on Sunday. The defending champions cruised past the league-worst Washington Wizards by a 112-98 score that was not indicative of how lopsided the game really was. At one point the Celtics held a 22-point lead.
The game was added to the schedule after neither team was able to qualify for the Emirates NBA Cup tournament, and was the third time in the first 26 games of the season that the two teams faced off. All of the contests have taken place at the Capital One Arena in Washington, the Wizards’ home court.
With the victory, the Celtics went to 3-0 over Washington, meaning that Boston now has more wins at Capital One Arena this season than the Wizards do. Washington has won only three games so far against 21 losses. Just two of those wins have come at home.
Easy Victory Came With Difficult Bad News
The news was not all sunny for the Celtics, however. After playing just 11 minutes, Boston center — and former Washington Wizards big man – Kristaps Porzingis was forced to leave the game with foot pain. The injury-prone seven-footer (listed at 7’2″) has already missed 19 of the Celtics’ 26 games due to injury.
Most of that missed time came at the beginning of the season when Porzingis was recovering from surgery to repair a torn medial retinaculum — an ankle injury he suffered in the second game of the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. The Celtics went on to win that series and the NBA Championship, beating Dallas 4-1. Porzingis somehow came back to play in Game 5, but the injury was clearly serious and Porzingis had surgery shortly after the Finals concluded.
Porzingis missed the Celtics’ first 17 games this season before returning on November 25 against the Los Angeles Clippers. The Latvian-born center recorded 16 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots in that game, showing no lingering effects from the ankle injury.
So what was the injury in Sunday’s game? According to Porzingis himself, speaking to the media after the game, he experienced “heel pain.”
Porzingis Claims Injury Not Serious
“I banged up my heel a little bit in the first quarter early,” Porzingis said after that game. “Not early, but in the first quarter at some point. I kept on playing. It’s nothing major honestly. It’s more like a precautionary thing.”
After leaving the game in the second quarter, Porzingis did not return. The Celtics have issued no further updates on the latest injury to the big man, but Porzingis said he was not overly concerned — even though it was the second injury he has suffered in the seven games he has played since coming back in late November. His long record of missing time due to injury, however, cast a cloud over the Celtics’ victory.
The team now has three days off before facing the Chicago Bulls on December 19. Whether or not Porzingis is available for that game will reveal a lot about his outlook for the remainder of the season.
Porzingis is currently in his 10th NBA season, though he missed the entire 2018-2019 campaign with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) a serious knee injury. His career high in games played came in his rookie season of 2015-2016 with the New York Knicks, when he appeared in 72 of his team’s games. Since then he has never played more than 65 games in a regular season schedule, a number he has hit twice, in 2016-2017 and 2022-2023.
In 2023-2024, his first year with the Celtics, his played in 57 games on his way to helping the team to 64 wins and the top seed in the East.
Comments
Boston Celtics Get Bad News That Casts Dark Shadow Over Latest One-Sided Victory