At long last, Kristaps Porziņģis has been in good health. After playing in just one of his first 11 games after getting traded to the Golden State Warriors, the Latvian big man and former NBA All-Star started on Friday night against the Detroit Pistons, marking his sixth time playing in the last eight games. And then, unfortunately, he ran into more injury woes.
Late in the second quarter of the game, Porziņģis grabbed his lower back, and motioned to the bench that he needed to be subbed out. When
the Dubs returned to action in the second half, Porziņģis was nowhere to be found, and had been ruled out for the game. Malevy Leons took his spot in the starting lineup.
The Warriors are listing Porziņģis’ injury as lower back soreness, which is vague enough that we just don’t know the severity of it. Backs are very fickle things that can result in serious long-term ailments, but they can also seize up briefly, and heal nearly as fast.
That said, it seems unlikely that Porziņģis will be able to play in Golden State’s next game, as they have a 24-hour turnaround — which features a flight — and visit Jonathan Kuminga and the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night. For now, we cross our fingers, and hope that it’s not a sever injury that keeps Porziņģis off the court for a significant chunk of time. After all, there are only 12 games left in the regular season, and they’re already missing Al Horford.
