Kristaps Porzingis on RETURN from Hamstring Injury: ‘It Felt Great’ | Celtics vs Pistons Postgame

Kristaps Porzingis on RETURN from Hamstring Injury: ‘It Felt Great’ | Celtics vs Pistons Postgame

[Applause] felt great felt great uh yeah uh just a different because I had the minutes restriction just different spurts of playing it barely played in the first uh then in the second I was had a longer stretch something unusual but other than that it’s always good to be out there

Was that pre-planned to have that long stretch or I know Joe talked to me at the towards the end of second quarter he was like I’ll just let like sit you this one so we can play in the second half more in casee if the game is close or

Whatever he he wanted to have those minutes for me available you know and so of course you know I agreed and and um and and that was it so that’s that that’s why it was weird like that weird like after Denver game you know a little

Sore the next day after the game um so I didn’t even like mention it to anybody it was just some tightness or whatever and then uh the day of Phoenix game uh I kind of started warming up in the morning and I started to feel something

So I said it to the medical staff and of course they were really like cautious with it uh so we did some Imaging and you could see something of course um but it was mostly out of caution to be honest if you know life or death or was

Playoffs you know I would have been completely fine and we took a long time and you know got to work on everything but especially Miami hamstrings and and I feel good now and there’s just a lot of caution I would say do you think the minutes restriction will continue I hope

Not hope not I want to be out there you know for more but I understand of course we the most important is to uh get to playoffs as fresh as possible and as you know as as as strong as possible you mentioned that being like unusual

Tonight um you know a lot of kind guys talk about staying warm and things like that you play six minutes sit the rest of the first sit the whole second sit halftime and then you play like a really long stretch where the things you had to

Do to be prepared for that and yeah no simple things just I got on the bike at the end of the uh first half got him the bike a little bit just to move around I knew I was going to sit for 15 more minutes here in the locker room so I got

Out early 7 minutes got warming up again did oh just a bunch of warmup honestly like a lot of warmup today and then um and then was ready for second half and how did it feel when you were out there did you notice it at all no no no zero

Thought yeah I wanted to play earlier I wanted to play the second Phoenix game already I was pushing for it but I understood that you know it’s just uh to be cautious and to be smart uh we just took our time and and uh but now zero

Zero nothing and and and look to keep uh um getting more of those minutes when you first got here you like you made it the point last year that you only missed time because of like illness really this year you’ve missed like one game two games here or there for all these

Different little things nothing’s really kept you out that long so how have you guys managed it has it been like different than last year you guys been more cautious and how do you feel like you’re holding up definitely more cautious here yeah I could have played through more stuff 100% but but I

Understand there will be a time and place for me to play through stuff and not you know especially at this point in the season uh we’re we’re in a pretty good spot and uh we know what’s the most important thing is is the playoffs you know and that’s what we need to be

Healthy fresh and ready to leave everything out there so it’s a different mindset here than on other teams that I’ve been on um but of course me as a player I always want to be out there for against you know no disrespect but against Detroit against whoever regular

Season end of season I don’t care I want to out there you know and um and yeah just just just having in mind the big picture how remarkable is it what you guys have doing despite I mean missing three sters last night missing three the top six tonight continue to keep dominating not

R this is the type of team we have it’s a big privilege know for us uh some guys are out not some guys top guys are out and other guys just step in and we could just keep rolling as a team you know it’s it’s a privilege that

I don’t know if you if there’s like on one hand teams in in the league that are like us I don’t think so so you know we’re we’re we believe we’re at a different level and and we’re going to have to show it to the postseason you have like advantages now since things

Are kind of locked up you to play with different guys try some different combinations what’s this like out there starting the game with Luke and you know getting you know tman in there what’s like playing with those guys it’s it’s it’s an adjustment of course a little

Bit you know it was it wasn’t the um Regular fives that I was out there you know with uh today but we make it work we we readed each other we play off for each other a lot of the stuff is just open and and and and we we play off for

Each other knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses but I’m not going to lie me and Luke together it was like we were running to the same spots all the time like doing the same thing so I was like the spacing was a little bit not perfect today early on in the

Game but we figur it out you have this opportunity like a few weeks of maybe you just try it you know a little bit you never know when you’re have to go to that combination of so there there’s kind of like a little bit of a luxury here to to kind

Of try that out in in regular season games oh definitely definitely and depending on matchups and the playoffs you never know there’s there’s going to be as you said different situations and and it’s good that we have the flexibility and also these kind of moments where some guys are sitting out

And and we could try out these different things right so uh it will definitely just add more to our tool box you mentioned how much you like playing with dere white how excited were you for him to get his first I think it’s hard not to love him

H this guy just on and off the court court is a is a unique human and uh unique player um uh I can go on and on and give compliments to to DWI honestly about who he is everybody loves him here um and uh it’s good always to see people like this

Uh you know getting recognition on the floor also and that’s what he did tonight they

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