{"id":127963,"date":"2025-03-11T07:30:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T11:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=127963"},"modified":"2025-03-11T06:59:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T10:59:33","slug":"should-the-celtics-be-worried-about-the-kristaps-porzingis-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/11\/should-the-celtics-be-worried-about-the-kristaps-porzingis-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"Should The Celtics Be Worried About This Star\u2019s Mystery Illness?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kristaps Porzingis<\/a> has missed the last six Celtics games with an illness and is still not yet cleared to return. Although getting sick happens, missing almost two weeks is not terribly normal. On top of that, a recent Celtics injury report update is saying that Porzingis is without a timetable to return. What\u2019s odd is that the update came from Porzingis\u2019 personal twitter account. Porzingis revealed in his tweet that he is \u201choping for a healthy return soon\u201d. It may not be a huge concern yet but the Celtics need a healthy Porzingis to compete for a championship.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Should The Celtics Be Worried About This Star\u2019s Mystery Illness?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Kristaps Porzingis\u2019 Illness Causing Concern<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Porzingis said on X Monday<\/a>, \u201cI have been dealing with some viral illness that we haven’t been able to fully identify yet. I am recovering and getting better. But still working my way back to full strength to help this team.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that the best doctors in the world still haven\u2019t been able to identify what exactly is wrong with Porzingis is quite troubling. From Porzingis\u2019 tweet, it doesn\u2019t seem like fans should be too worried. However, the fact that he had to send a tweet out clarifying why he still hasn\u2019t returned means that people are at least starting to ask questions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Celtics Are Too Good To Be Worried about Porzingis’ Sickness Right Now<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Even if Kristaps Porzingis’ illness forces him to miss a handful more games, the Celtics are in a great position. They have won five straight games without his help and they are also holding onto the second seed in the East by five and a half games. The Celtics are one of the deepest and most talented teams in the league<\/a>. They are built to compete even while missing key players.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Celtics have been without Porzingis in more than half of their games this year (32 of 65) and have fared just fine. In fact, Porzingis only played in 57 games last season when they grabbed the number one seed. They also won the NBA Finals with Porzingis missing significant chunks of the playoffs. So even if Porzingis\u2019 illness continues to linger, the Celtics theoretically should be fine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Celtics May Need Porzingis To Repeat As Champions<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One thing that\u2019s different this year than last is that the Celtics may not have as easy a path to an NBA championship. Last year, they basically waltzed through the Eastern Conference playoffs. On top of that, they were met by a surprise underdog Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. This year, the Celtics will probably be more tested.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cleveland Cavaliers have the best record in the NBA at 54-10. They are going to be a difficult matchup for the Celtics<\/a>. If Porzingis is still on the Celtics injury report when those two titans clash in the playoffs, the Cavaliers have the size and skills to take full advantage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Potential Western Conference foes who could make the NBA Finals look scarier if the Celtics are missing Porzingis. The Thunder and Nuggets both have lots of size and talent down low. The Celtics will need Porzingis to help stop them. So for now, Porzingis\u2019 mystery illness may not be a major concern, but if he doesn\u2019t get healthy soon, the Celtics may face some real adversity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Eric Canha-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kristaps Porzingis has missed the last six Celtics games with an illness and is still not yet cleared to return. Although getting sick happens, missing almost two weeks is not terribly normal. On top of that, a recent Celtics injury report update is saying that Porzingis is without a timetable to return. What\u2019s odd is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":128006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,5,62],"tags":[138],"class_list":["post-127963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-nba","tag-kristaps-porzingis"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127963"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128007,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127963\/revisions\/128007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}