NBA
Ex-Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis Suffers Rare Injury
![Ex-Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis Suffers Rare Injury Ex-Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis Suffers Rare Injury](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_4434,h_2494,x_0,y_43/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/all_knicks/01j04djhjbb2k5ef4pcm.jpg)
The injury bug appears to have followed Kristaps Porzingis from the New York Knicks.
The current Boston Celtic has been labeled day-to-day by his new employers as they close in on their record 18th NBA championship. Porzingis has suffered what the Celtics described as a “rare injury,” namely a “torn medial retinaculum allowing dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon” as described by Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Porzingis promised to do everything in his power to be out on the floor when the Celtics go for a 3-0 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC) but stressed that it’ll come down to the opinions of Boston’s medical experts.
Prior to the finals, Porzingis missed 10 straight games with an unrelated calf injury, one that kept him out of Boston’s series victories over Cleveland and Indiana. A torn ACL infamously and indirectly ended his Knicks career, as he sustained the ailment shortly after he was named to the Eastern Conference’s 2018 contingent. Porzings was traded to the Dallas Mavericks while he sat out the following season and has appeared in at least 60 games only once since then.
Boston currently holds a 2-0 lead on Dallas in the best-of-seven championship series. Porzingis got the momentum rolling for the Celtics in Game 1, as he scored 20 points and pulled in six rebounds off the bench in a blowout victory. He later scored 11 in Game 2 before missing the final four-plus minutes with the active leg woes.
Porzingis is not the only international superstar would could potentially miss out on the Finals festivities on Wednesday: per Malika Andrews and Tim McMahon of ESPN, Mavericks franchise face Luka Doncic is set to receive another pain-killing shot when the series shifts to American Airlines Center. Doncic received one prior to Game 2 “to numb the area of his thoracic contusion” and scored a game-best 32 points in defeat.