The last time Kristaps Porzingis was on the court, he could barely put together consecutive minutes in the playoffs. His illness bogged him down as the Celtics fell to the Knicks in the second round of the playoffs. It was clear Porzingis, who has struggled in his career in the playoffs, couldn’t play at full strength.
But it appears the illness is behind him as the former Celtics big man is playing for his native Latvia ahead of the EuroBasket competition. Latvia has played in a few exhibition games ahead of the actual tournament, plus they have pair of friendlies still coming up in Greece and Italy in a few days.
Porzingis has looked more like himself as he scored 20 points in Latvia’s win over Slovenia a few days ago. The big man has been vocal about wanting to play for Latvia this summer, representing his country, and also remarked that it helps him tune up for the upcoming regular season, too.
Latvia is one of the host countries of the tournament, along with Cyprus, Finland and Poland. However, Latvia will also host the knockout stages in Riga, so if the Latvians make it that far, they will have home-court advantage. But first, Latvia must make it past the group stage.
Latvia is in Group A along with Serbia, Portugal, Estonia, Turkey and the Czech Republic. Notably, Porzingis is scheduled to play C’s big man Neemias Queta and Portugal as part of the group stage. The top-2 teams of the pool will advance to the knockout stages.
Porzingis was traded from the Celtics to the Hawks this offseason as part of cost-cutting moves elsewhere on the roster. The C’s were able to save a significant amount of money by moving Porzingis’ contract to Atlanta. The big man enjoyed success in Boston, including winning the 2024 NBA title.
But ultimately, as has been the case throughout Porzingis’ career, availability was an issue. He missed the majority of the 2024 playoff run due to a pair of injuries, including one suffered in the 2024 NBA Finals. He also sat a lot in the 2024-25 regular season. First, it was surgery rehab. Then a mysterious viral illness knocked him out for stretches in the second half of the season. That illness proved difficult in the playoffs as Porzingis struggled immensely against the Knicks.
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