Despite winning Game 4, fans of the Boston Celtics will not be a happy group tonight. While they are one step closer to advancing to the second round of the playoffs, the injury sustained by Kristaps Porzingis has demotivated the entire fanbase. At first, the medical staff of the organization stated that the big man was dealing with ‘calf tightness’. However, supporters will be even more concerned after learning what a sports doctor has to say about the same.
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Just before halftime, Kristaps Porzingis was escorted to the team locker room after suffering a non-contact injury to his strain. In a tweet, the Boston Celtics claimed that the center had suffered a right calf tightness. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski also reported that Porzingis had avoided a major injury involving the Achilles tendon. But, Brian Sutterer – a sports doctor – had presented the possibility of some much worse in a YouTube video.
At first, Sutterer simply claimed that the incident could lead to something much more serious than the Cs are hoping for it to be. Later, shedding light on the position of Porzingis’ ankle as well as the calf, Sutterer presented the possibilities of three horrific injuries – Achilles tendon injury, calf strain, or soleus strain.
“The team is calling right calf tightness but based on the mechanism here this non-contact push off I think there could be real concern for something more serious, unfortunately.
The concern is that we see a position, we see a push off that can be worrisome for an Achillies injury… In this position, that right leg, his ankle is dorsiflexed. There’s going to be this Eccentric stretching load on the calf, on the Achillies tendon… Can lead to an Achilles tendon injury, can also lead to something like a calf strain or a soleus strain,” Sutterer said.
As seen in the video posted by Tomek Kordylewski on X (formerly “Twitter”), it can be seen that the 7ft 3” star had rolled his ankle merely a few plays before the non-contact injury. From what it may seem, hurting his ankle must’ve aggravated the calf pain.
A long history of injuries for Kristaps Porzingis
Kristaps Porzingis has had a fairly healthy regular season, playing in 57 out of the 82 games. During the 2022-2023 season, the Latvian also played 65 games for the Washington Wizard. But before his stint with the Wizards, Porzingis had to deal with a skew of injuries to his legs.
Since joining the league in 2015, the unicorn has hurt both his ankles, had a contusion to his left heel, had a meniscus tear in his right knee, suffered a torn ACL in his left knee, and a few minor soreness. But an injury to the calf, of such a magnitude (if it leads to a soleus strain), has never bothered him before.
These injuries were responsible for limiting the sharpshooting big man to play 48 games in the 2017-2018 season, to miss the entirety of the 2018-2019 season, 43 games in 2020-2021, and 51 games in 2021-2022.
However, the All-Star has managed to recoup and bounce back after each injury he sustained. With the Miami Heat leading the series 3-1, fans will hope that their star big man is given some rest. Additionally, a Kristaps Porzingis-less Boston squad should also be capable of defeating either of their next opponents – the Orlando Magic or the Cleveland Cavaliers.
