DALLAS — The Boston Celtics have ruled out center Kristaps Porzingis for Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday.
Porzingis was diagnosed with a torn medial retinaculum allowing the posterior tibial tendon in his left leg to dislocate on Tuesday afternoon — an injury the team said in its announcement announcement was a “rare” injury and one that Celtics coach Joe Mazzola said was serious.
Mazzola also said that Porzingis’ condition following the injury, which the team said came at 3:27 of the third quarter in Game 2, will be determined by the medical team, not Porzingis, to take any stress on him while playing off the field. His hands.
Porzingis keeps getting better day by day, Mazzola said before Game 3. He added that Porzingis underwent some tests with the medical team to determine if he could play, and after seeing Porzingis go through that, it was determined that Porzingis could not play and was ruled out of Wednesday’s game.
Porzingis was seen walking around with a sleeve on his left leg and a brace on his left ankle on Tuesday and again at Wednesday’s photo shoot, and with no noticeable limp either time. But Boston cut him about an hour and 45 minutes before tipoff on Wednesday, leaving the Celtics without their best point guard and another elite shooter as they try to take a 3-0 lead in the series.
The Celtics were plus-25 in the 44 minutes Boston Porzingis was on the court over the first two games of the series and were plus-25 in the 52 minutes he was on the bench.
Al Horford will remain in the starting lineup on Wednesday, and Boston could turn to Luke Kornett, Xavier Tillman or Oshae Brissett to fill Porzingis’ minutes off the bench.
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