Knicks F Porzingis ready to face Celtics (Dec 25, 2016)
NEW YORK -- A three-word declaration from Kristaps Porzingis was all New York Knicks fans needed to hear.
"I'll be ready," Porzingis said to reporters Friday as the Knicks prepared to host the Boston Celtics on Sunday afternoon after a one-year absence from the NBA's Christmas Day schedule.
Before his statement, it was a scary moment for Porzingis on Thursday. Early in the fourth quarter of New York's 106-95 win over the Orlando Magic, Porzingis banged knees with Nikola Vucevic and did not return.
After the game, Porzingis described it as "a sharp pain" and also said it had "a little inflammation in the tendon and the bone." Following his declaration on Friday, Porzingis reiterated it a day later by saying he will be ready to play as the inflammation is gone.
Porzingis has yet to miss a game this season and has played 101 out of 111 possible in his career. One of those was not Christmas Day a year ago, when a team coming off a 65-loss season was deemed unworthy of the five-game national television spotlight.
The advantage of the 65-loss season was the Knicks being able to get the fourth overall draft pick in 2015 and use it on Porzingis. He is averaging 19.9 points and 7.3 rebounds this season and the Knicks are 9-6 when Porzingis scores at least 20 points.
"Oh it's going to be huge. At the Garden. The atmosphere was already unbelievable," Porzingis said. "I can't imagine what's going to happen on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it."
One of Porzingis' worst games this season occurred last month in Boston, when he shot 5-of-15 in a 115-87 loss on Nov. 11. Carmelo Anthony was also ejected from that game by Tony Brothers in the second quarter and six technical fouls were whistled against the Knicks, who are eager for better results against their longtime rival.
"It's going to be like a redemption game for us," Porzingis said. "We didn't play well (last month) and all the other stuff wasn't going our way, it was just a tough game for us. We want it. We want it especially at home. We want to redeem ourselves."
Porzingis is 1-4 against the Celtics. He scored 26 points in a six-point win on Jan. 12 but is shooting 35.8 percent (19 of 53) in the four losses.
While the Knicks were relieved Porzingis is fine, they also were satisfied with getting a win without him. New York is 13-8 since its last meeting with Boston, and without Porzingis down the stretch, rookie Willy Hernangomez scored 12 of his 15 points and Kyle O'Quinn collected 10 of his 16 rebounds in the fourth during a night when Anthony shot 5 of 17.
The Celtics are 13-9 since Isaiah Thomas scored 29 points in the win over New York. Boston had a four-game winning streak stopped in a 117-112 home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday when they became the latest team to allow a triple-double to Russell Westbrook.
Thomas scored 15 points in a span of 4:33 in the fourth quarter as the Celtics eliminated a nine-point deficit. Boston held a four-point lead with 3:37 remaining but Thomas had one basket and the Celtics were outscored 17-6 the rest of the game.
"We're in such a gamut of games right now that we need to learn from the parts that we can really improve on, and we need to move forward," Boston coach Brad Stevens said.
The "gamut" is a stretch of nine of 11 games against teams currently over .500, which concludes Thursday at Cleveland.
Boston's four-game winning streak had coincided with the return of Thomas from a groin injury on Dec. 16. He scored 34 points on 12-of-22 shooting Friday and is averaging 31 points and shooting 52.1 percent since coming back.
"I mean it (stinks) we lost, but we just have to focus on the Knicks now," Thomas said. "Somehow we have to capitalize on these games at home, especially when we have a chance to win at the end. We can't hold our heads on this loss. We have to move on to the next one and focus on getting a win in New York. That will be better than making one loss into two."
The Knicks are 22-28 on Christmas. The Celtics are 12-17 on Christmas, with all but one of the games taking place outside of Boston.
The Celtics are 4-3 against the Knicks on Christmas. Anthony scored 37 points and hit the tiebreaking free throws with 16 seconds in New York's 106-104 Christmas Day win in 2011.
Before the 2011 meeting, the teams had not met on Christmas since 1985, when Patrick Ewing scored 32 points in New York's 113-104 double-overtime win.
