© Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Kristaps Porzingis is all smiles after his Celtics playoff debut: ‘That was fun’
Porzingis had 18 points in his first playoff game as a Celtic and described the debut game as a “perfect setup” in his postgame presser.
Last year at this time, Kristaps Porzingis was on vacation. The Washington Wizards team he helped lead finished the year 35-47 – good for the third-worst record in the East – and Porzingis watched the playoffs from home.
One year later, the seven-foot-three Latvian native enjoyed an efficient postseason debut on a Celtics team hoping for a deep playoff run, and ultimately, a championship. In his first playoff game in green, Porzingis had 18 points on 7-13 shooting, including hitting 4 of 8 from three.
His strong offensive performance contributed to a 20-point Celtics rout of the Miami Heat – and a 1-0 series advantage.
Porzingis, who has talked all year about how amazing it is to play in front of a rowdy TD Garden crowd, said there was even more juice in the building for Game 1 of the postseason. The Celtics came out firing and opened the game with a 17-2, and the Garden could not have been much louder.
"It was definitely a fun game. Our first playoff game this year, at home, Sunday, 1pm, perfect setup, right?” Porzingis said. “We came out the right way. We were the first ones to punch them and yeah, we got off to a good start, and from that point on, we kept it going."
Defensively, Porzingis was tasked with guarding Bam Adebayo for much of the afternoon. Adebayo, the focal point of Miami’s offense in the absence of Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier, finished with 24 points on 10-18 shooting. Postgame, he noted a couple of times he’s not particularly concerned with the two centers’ individual match-ups.
“Of course, we want to stop him as much as possible, but understanding they're gonna play through him all the time, (and) he's gonna be involved in all the situations,” Porzingis said. “I don't care about him. I care about our team and what we're trying to achieve; this is not one one-on-one, me against Bam, this is Celtics against heat. So, we'll make sure that's our focus."
Since Porzingis was first traded to Boston back in August, he’s routinely praised the Boston fanbase. In a preseason game against the 76ers, he expressed disbelief at how engaged the crowd was despite the low stakes of the match-up.
“It was insane,” Porzingis said back in October. “That was insane for a preseason game. I don’t know what to say… I’m very happy to be a Celtic, I’m not gonna lie.”
On Sunday afternoon, Porzingis saw a playoff Celtics crowd for the first time, and he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
“I was just happy that we came out the way we came out this afternoon,” Porzingis said. “And playing in Boston and playoffs — looking forward to more and more games here at home."
