OKLAHOMA CITY \u2013 Kristaps Porzingis flashed a grimace, ever so slightly, as he sat in the visiting press conference room at Paycom Center and\u00a0 gave an honest assessment of his performance on Saturday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After not playing for over two weeks as he recovered from a mysterious illness, running up and down the court for 23 minutes in the Warriors\u2019 104-97 loss to the Thunder took its toll on the 30-year-old center.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy legs feel heavy. I\u2019ll probably watch the film and be disgusted by how I moved,\u201d Porzingis said. \u201cBut I\u2019ll get there. I\u2019ll get my legs under me and move the way I want to and open my lungs up more and get cardio in. There\u2019s no other way to get it than just by playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stat sheet \u2013 3 of 9 shooting, nine points, five rebounds, five assists and a block \u2013 did not tell the story of his night.<\/p>\n
But it did display signs of a potentially impactful big man who was playing only his second game with the team since he was acquired Feb. 5 from the Hawks for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield.<\/p>\n
He drew multiple fouls in the post. He flashed rim protection alongside Draymond Green and Al Horford in super-sized lineups. He made nifty passing reads in Golden State\u2019s motion offense. He gave coach Steve Kerr a bonafide force on the low block.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see what kind of weapon he is, and the kind of size he gives us,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cWe\u2019re just figuring out combinations and actions we want to run with him, and for him, so we\u2019ll take a little time, but really encouraging to see him out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
And in between the highlights and the just-as-plentiful lowlights was a sense of relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing is that I\u2019m feeling good, and that\u2019s just giving me peace of mind,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m ready to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Porzingis was not too keen to describe what gave him and the team confidence that he could stay healthy down the stretch of a season that now has only 19 games remaining.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Celtics\u2019 doctors diagnosed him with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) in the summer, a condition that is marked by chronic fatigue and frequent illness, and has no known cure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Was the sudden illness that befell him on Feb. 22, and then again flared up on Feb. 28 right before the Lakers game, related to POTS? Porzingis would not say, instead pushing the focus to the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis summer, I was already fine,\u201d Porzingis said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go too much into it, but I\u2019m happy that I\u2019m feeling good now, and I really believe, really, really believe that I will be healthy in terms of that, with the energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
During that absence, Kerr told local radio station 95.7 The Game that Hawks\u2019 general manager Onsi Saleh told him that Porzingis did not actually have POTS.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kerr later walked those comments back. Porzingis assured reporters that he held no negative feelings toward Kerr for that, even though it was an annoyance for a moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t ideal, because it put something out again so people could start talking about this,\u201d Porzingis said. \u201cBut I told Steve it\u2019s ok, and I know you didn\u2019t mean to create hype around my health. He just said whatever he knew at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Porzingis missed six games and remained away from the Warriors for their road trip to New Orleans and Memphis, he made an impression on his teammates whenever he was around.<\/p>\n
Though he was unable to practice until Thursday before the win at Houston, Porzingis did the opposite of throwing himself a pity party.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s heart and soul noticed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not an organization to walk around and look at guys like \u201cMan, this guy might be ready\u201d or \u201cWhy is he not out there?\u201d We don\u2019t do that, and you\u2019re never going to feel any pressure as far as getting on the court. That\u2019s not who we are and how we operate,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not a guy who walks around and wants you to see he\u2019s not feeling well. . He walks in with the same attitude, upbeat, same spirit, and you can appreciate that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Porzingis singled out Green as a teammate who has helped him acclimate to the Warriors\u2019 locker room since he joined the team a month ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Porzingis checked out of Saturday night\u2019s game following his first short four-minute stint off the bench in the first quarter, he made a bee-line to Green.<\/p>\n
The two talked for almost a minute, Porzingis listening as Green pointed out various actions and reactions he had observed from the sidelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever I have a question, he\u2019s the guy that can give me some good insight on what we want,\u201d Porzingis said.<\/p>\n
While Green gave him instant advice, Kerr was devising ways to get Porzingis involved. The Hall of Fame coach flooded the playbook with postups \u2013 many seeing Green throw the entry pass \u2013 against an undersized Oklahoma City front line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those plays had Green dreaming of what could be if \u2013 or when \u2013 Steph Curry returns from his bout with runner\u2019s knee.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery useful, especially when Steph\u2019s out there, because he\u2019s going to take two people out of the play,\u201d Green said. \u201cSo when you can get those advantages, create those advantages, people will help more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even without Curry, Porzingis earned six free throws by overpowering his defenders, but rust showed when the career 84% foul shooter bricked half of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The distance shooting as a whole was obviously and understandably rusty, and it showed when Porzingis whiffed on all three of his 3-point attempts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kerr did his best to keep Porzingis fresh, playing him in short four-minute bursts followed by equally-long stints on the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But as Porzingis said, the only way he can build that stamina is by playing. Of course, the Warriors will remain cautious with his return.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kerr already said Porzingis will not play on Monday in Utah, saving him for Tuesday\u2019s second night of the back-to-back in the Bay Area against the Bulls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Porzingis believed it will only get better from here on a team clinging to the eighth seed with a 32-31 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to feel good to play, and I feel like from this point on, I\u2019m just building on top of this,\u201d Porzingis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY \u2013 Kristaps Porzingis flashed a grimace, ever so slightly, as he sat in the visiting press…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,160,479,164,4025,4024,6,162,66,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-647284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-golden-state","11":"tag-golden-state-warriors","12":"tag-goldenstate","13":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-san-francisco","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116194278402449536","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}