BOSTON — Kristaps Porzingis was benched to start the second half against the Knicks in a do-or-die Game 5 for the Celtics. Luke Kornet replaced Porzingis in the starting five to start the third quarter.
Porzingis has struggled all postseason long as he continues to deal with the lingering effects of an illness that sidelined him for eight games back in March. Joe Mazzulla inserted Porzingis into the starting five in place of an injured Jayson Tatum for Game 5 after he came off the bench for the past three games.
Porzingis has not had many productive minutes in his reduced role and those struggles continued in Game 5 as he scored just one point in 12 first half minutes, missing all three of his field goal attempts. He also had a rebound and a block, but was a team-worst minus 12 in the first half as the Knicks constantly attacked him on the defensive end.
After three unproductive first half stints, Mazzulla elected to pull the plug on the big man for the night. He started with double bigs in the quarter with Kornet and Horford but had to audible again once Horford hit foul troubel. From there, he stuck with a single big lineup with Horford or Kornet playing center the rest of the way.
Porzingis is now shooting just 23 percent from the field in the second round even though he expressed optimism after Game 4 that he was beginning to feel better from the effects of his illness.
“Tonight was the first time I felt decent, honestly,” Porzingis said after Game 4. “Just everything. My energy, I was more like uplifted, and maybe didn’t have my best game, anyway. But my energy was good and I felt like I could go a bit more up and down, so that was a positive.”