What is going on with Kristaps Porzingis Illness?: Mazzulla stated "He couldn't breathe"

The Boston Celtics have kept their season alive with a 127-102 victory in Monday night’s game despite their rotation being a bit thin.

The devastating news of Jayson Tatum’s achilles will be detrimental to the team, but there has been another player dealing with something keeping him off the court for quite a while.

Kristaps Porzingis has been dealing with a lingering mystery illness since March, and it continues to impact him.

This has caused a bit of a problem to the Celtic’s already thin big-man rotation. Players like Al Horford, who are 38 years old have had to play extended minutes, and Luke Kornet, a fringe rotational player to have career nights. 

Porzingis, for example, started Monday, May 14th’s game, but played just 12 minutes. Unfortunately for the Celtics, it has been the same story all playoffs.

Following their game 5 win, Head Coach Joe Mazzulla gave an update as to why Porzingis was benched for the second half of the game.

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“He couldn't breathe, so he was available if absolutely necessary,” Mazzula stated.

In his limited minutes so far this series, Porzingis has not been as effective as he normally has. 

In Game 5 he had just 1 point and 1 rebound, obviously not living up to his 19.6 ppg and 7.8 rpg career averages. 

“That was just a decision between me and him, he was having difficulty breathing. He wanted to be out there, and if we absolutely needed him we would’ve been able to go to him,” Mazzulla added. 

Should the Celtics manage to keep their season alive, the 7'2 center who connects on 30-foot bombs and adds great rim protection would be a great way for them to do that.

Right now however, Porzingis is showing no signs of coming back, after playing 24 minutes in game 4, but taking another step back with his restricted gameplay in game 5.

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