Get Kristaps Porziņģis A Nice Rental on Nantucket and Tell Him "We'll See You in the Fall"
"Kristaps, baby. Come have a seat. Here's the thing. We love you. You know we love you, right? We want you to feel better, because you're clearly not at your best right now. So we've decided to get you a rental house on Nantucket, and we just want you to focus on getting better. We think the sea air on the island will really clear up your lungs. The Juice Bar has great ice cream – try the strawberry dark chocolate chip, so refreshing!!! – the cobblestones downtown are very quaint, and they have not one but two great indie bookstores there! Oh, plus a brewery! Really, you're going to have a great time. We'll check in periodically with you, but don't worry about a thing, and we'll see you in the Fall when training camp opens."
Kristaps Porziņģis has been a corpse the entire postseason. Why, you ask? No clue. He was sick with a mystery virus in March, but then felt better and came back on March 15th and played 10 of the final 15 games. Four of the games he missed were in April when the team's playoff spot was all but decided. In the 10 games, he averaged 28.5 minutes per game, and 21.2 points on .511/.411/.800 shooting, as well as 6.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game. In New York on April 8th, he played 39 minutes, and scored 34 points on 11-for-19 shooting, including 8-for-13 from three. Then the team got a week off, and when the playoffs started, all of a sudden Porziņģis was sick again???? He entered tonight's game playing just 23.0 minutes per game, with 8.9 points per game on .333/.136/.707 shooting, and 5.0 rebounds, 0.9 assists, and 0.8 blocks per game. It has been even worse in this series. In the first four games, he scored zero, eight, five, and seven points. Tonight, in 12 first-half minutes, he scored zero points, and was truly dragging down the entire team. Take a look:
KP not only made no impact, the team was making no impact while he was out there. He wasn't scoring, and he wasn't keeping the Knicks off the glass on either end. He was somehow a brutal -12 in 12 minutes of play. For the postseason, he's now 3-for-24 from three-point land, and every single shot has looked bad. If you're scoring at home, that's five fewer three's made in 10 playoff games than he had in that one game in New York on April 8. I'm sorry, but that just doesn't compute. In tonight's first half, Sam Hauser was a -8, but every other player on the team was at least a +1. The other four starters were +6, +3, +5, and +2. But the KP minutes were like playing four on five. If idiots like me can tell, surely the coaches must, right?
Thankfully, the coaches did notice, and left KP on the bench to start the second half. That was the first big thing that happened to turn around what was a tie game. The C's were playing from ahead a lot of the first half, but were making the same mistakes they made in the three losses of this series, and entered the half tied. They needed a spark. Enter Luke Kornet. More on him in a second.
The second big thing that happened was that Josh Hart pissed off Jaylen Brown. Why anyone at any time would ever decide that pissing off Jaylen Brown is a good idea is beyond me, but then again, Jalen Brunson apparently often describes Josh Hart as "a two-year-old,"* so maybe he doesn't know any better (* according to Kevin Harlan, this was something he said during the broadcast). Jaylen made it his mission to run through the Knicks the rest of the quarter, piling up fouls on the Knicks and getting to the line eight times. That penetration was much needed, as the C's only got to the line eight times total in the first half.
The third big thing that happened was that Al Horford picked up his fourth foul with 10:01 left in the third quarter, and he was subbed out of for Payton Pritchard. At the time, Hart was shooting free throws, and would make is a 68-67 game. At that moment, with Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Kornet, Pritchard, and JB on the court, the C's took off, and took control. It was like they were suddenly pulled out of the quicksand. No more walking the ball up and playing ISO ball. In the first half, they had 10 assists and 7 turnovers. In the second half, they had 16 assists and 1 turnover. Read that again! It was truly a tale of two halves, and while we can lament this lack of ball movement in the first four games, it was great to see the team remember themselves in the second half tonight. They would outscore the Knicks by 15 points in the quarter, and the Knicks never threatened again.
Kornet played the whole quarter. That's the first eye opener. I am pretty sure that's never happened. The only players who ever get the distinction of playing full quarters are Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Every once in awhile, D White will play the entire fourth quarter. But such was the play of Kornet in the third. He only put in four points on 2-for-2 shooting, but he also pulled in five rebounds, and more importantly, had five blocks. FIVE BLOCKS! The Knicks decided to fuck around, and boy did they find out. For the game, Kornet finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, and seven blocks. Literally one rebound and three blocks from a triple double. Luke Kornet! Our Luke Kornet! Can you even imagine?
From there, the Celtics smelled blood in the water, and just needed to make the right play. JB entered the fourth period with seven assists, and dished out five more in the fourth. His 12 assists were his career high. Not just his playoff career high (previous high: 8 in Game 3 of last year's NBA Finals), but for the regular season as well. Tonight was the 737th game of Jaylen Brown's career. Jaylen shot well (9-for-17, 3-for-5 from three) and rebounded well (his eight rebounds were only second to Kornet's nine), but it was passing that was most needed in Jayson Tatum's absence. It's especially important specifically for JB, because he is the player most likely to force shots. When he is not forcing, and making an effort to find his teammates, then beautiful basketball is in store. We absolutely love to see it, and we absolutely need to see it again in Game 6.
It must be said that the Knicks played a lot of this game like they expected the Celtics to roll over and go home. There was a lot of talk after Games 1 and 2 about the Celtics not respecting the Knicks, and the inverse was true tonight. Their transition defense was horrible, they didn't move the ball (seven assists vs. six turnovers in the second half), and most importantly, they played very undisciplined defense. Jalen Brunson fouled out, and Karl-Anthony Towns picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter and basically took the rest of the night off. Cameron Payne picked up three fouls in five minutes in the second quarter and was banished back to the bench for the rest of the night.
The Knicks will play better in Game 6, because it would be hard for such a talented team to play worse than they did tonight. A lot of things also went right for the C's in Game 5 – the rim protection from Luke Kornet, the hot three-point shooting from Derrick White (second straight game with 6+ threes while hitting 50+% of his threes), and the great passing from Jaylen Brown most of all. All three players are capable of repeating their performances in Game 6. But the biggest thing is that Joe Mazzulla finally escorted Kristaps Porziņģis to the bench. I joke about sending him to Nantucket only because I don't know if Mazzulla can be trusted to keep him on the bench in Game 6. If Porziņģis suddenly finds himself at 100%, OK, but it doesn't seem like that's in the cards, and as such Mazzulla really needs to keep KP on the bench moving forward.