Kristaps Porzingis sends self-aware message on Boston Celtics ahead of playoffs
Kristaps Porzingis wasn't lying to himself, and he certainly wasn't lying to NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin when he admitted that the Boston Celtics haven't achieved anything yet even after defeating the New Orleans Pelicans on March 30 in the Big Easy; and that losing two straight games to the Hawks in Atlanta isn't what the Cs are about.
“We want to be a hungry team no matter what,” Porzingis said. “We haven’t done anything and back-to-back losses to Atlanta … that’s not our DNA. It just didn’t sit right with us. We came out here tonight and got us a dub.
“We just knew we couldn’t be in cruise control. These teams are hungry. They need wins. Maybe at this point of the season, we don’t need them as much, but still, we want to come out here and compete at a high level every night. Once we hit another gear, the game just flipped.”
Porzingis was critical of his own performance after a 1/6 shooting night (well, afternoon) from beyond the arc against the Pelicans. He did, however, credit himself with his otherwise fine performance -- 19 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, four blocks, and two steals on 6/14 shooting overall and 6/6 from the free-throw line -- against New Orleans.
“I feel like last game, I didn’t play up to my level on all aspects of the game,” Porzingis said. “And even tonight, the three ball wasn’t falling for me, but there are so many ways me and us as a team can impact the game if things aren’t going perfectly for us, and that’s what I did tonight. I just turned it up another notch. That’s all we’re going to ned the rest of this regular season and then even more in the postseason.”
Zion Williamson in awe of Boston Celtics' performance
Zion Williamson gave even more credit to the Celtics than Porzingis did. The Pelicans star admitted he's in awe of Boston's consistency and lineup synergy after New Orleans was downed 104-92 at the Smoothie King Center.
“Their consistency on a nightly basis,” Williamson told reporters during the postgame presser (h/t MassLive). “The things that they mess up with, they don’t mess up twice. You can see it in their record. They know when to pick up their intensity. They know when they’re playing sloppy and they make adjustments quick. That’s what makes them great.
“They can switch one-through-five, especially when they have their starting unit out there. They don’t really have a pigeon you can really pick on. If they do, you have to watch film and see where it’s at. They’re all like-sized, and they can switch.”
Great teams have looked as good as the Cs before and have achieved as much as Boston has now: nothing. It's on Joe Mazzulla's roster to finish the story and make this historic season mean something in the grand scheme of NBA history.