The Boston Celtics received great news regarding Kristaps Porzingis's potential return earlier in the week. On Monday, Porzingis practiced with the Maine Celtics, the Celtics' G League team. He is on track to get back to playing before the end of the year. Jayson Tatum is already looking forward to the Celtics having the Latvian big man back and referred to him as a “cheat code” on the court, per Noa Dalzell of SB Nation.
“You seen it (what Porzingis means to the team) last year. We’re a really good team right now. We got KP and it just makes us that much better on both ends of the floor. Our chemistry is there. It’s like having a cheat code — a 7’4 guy we can get the ball to on mismatches and watch him go to work. … He looks good. We're all excited for when he does come back and have our full team healthy.”
The 12-3 Celtics are coming off a big 120-117 win over the Cavaliers, handing Cleveland their first loss of the season.
Celtics riding high in back-to-back title pursuit
Boston hasn't missed a beat on their journey for back-to-back titles. In that stellar win against the Cavs, they shot the lights out from three-point range. The Celtics converted 22-of-47 threes against Cleveland, good for 52.7%. They made 287 threes over a 15-game span, the most ever in NBA history, per ESPN Research Producer Matt Williams.
One of the perks of winning a title is visiting the White House, and the Celtics did that this week during their road trip to Washington. Tatum spoke about the honor of the moment.
“One of the perks of being a champion is going to the White House. You see, most of the former teams attend, so we’ll have that moment and take pictures and videos. It’s something that’ll last a lifetime.”
Al Horford and Derrick White also talked about what it means to them to share that moment together.
“I think it’s going to be fun,” White said. “That’s something that is growing up, you see teams that won championships go to the White House and just kind of celebrate that moment together. It’s just to be one of those teams that won a championship and go to the White House and celebrate with a great team and great people.”
“That was a really cool experience getting to go to the White House (with the Florida team) to be there,” Horford said. “We had a blast. So they did the thing on the lawn outside in the courtyard. There were other college teams there as well, so it was cool to interact with some of them and do that stuff. So it’s a really neat experience. It’s an honor to be able to go to the White House.”
