BOSTON — Kristaps Porzingis ditched his shirt that said “Walton,” received a standing ovation for his first play in a month, then carried on playing like the missing piece from the Celtics' penultimate championship.
While players from the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks honored the late NBA great Bill Walton by wearing shirts with his name on them at the start of the NBA Finals, Porzingis, perhaps unwittingly, paid the ultimate tribute to the fan-favorite.
He didn't set the tone alone when the Celtics took the lead in this best-of-seven series, sending a resounding message with a 107-89 Game 1 victory at TD Garden, but everything he did was big.
The theme was “loud” — from Walton's unmistakable laughter to Jaylen Brown's relentless defense of Luka Doncic to the Celtics crowd going berserk every time Kyrie Irving touched the ball.
But it's Porzingis who completes this team, whether he's been a starter his entire career or coming off the bench for just the second time in his nine-year career. The parallels are just too appealing for the Celtics' spoiled fans. The team honored Walton's family in a luxury box office before the game. Walton was the missing piece for arguably the best team of the Larry Bird era, the 1985-86 team. Plagued by injuries after a stellar start to his career that included a championship and an MVP, Walton just needed to be the complementary piece to a legendary front line of Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish.
That said, Walton would have carried Bird's load if Bird asked him to, but his passing, rebounding and activity were excellent.
For Porzingis, his peaks haven't been as sky-high as Walton's in his prime, but he's found the perfect spot in Boston, where a team that favors 3-pointers gives him plenty of space to make plays from deep and the free-throw line against smaller defenders, and swarming individual defenses force unwary drivers off the freeway and into a brick wall at the rim.
He touched every pass in the first quarter and had a big win before the final horn sounded. It's hard to believe he seemed unsure of how well he could play after suffering a calf injury in the first round against the Miami Heat, but he wasn't letting his guard down.
After finishing with 20 points and six rebounds, he himself could no longer be pessimistic.
“Yeah, I think it definitely helped me from the moment I got out there and walked on the court before the game, to having that incredible support,” Porzingis said. “I had that adrenaline pumping through my veins, and that definitely helped me. Obviously, it wasn't ideal being out for that long, but I prepared as much as I could mentally for this moment of coming back and it paid off.”
Brown has been one of Porzinis' biggest supporters and saw him coming back at full strength even before Porzinis himself knew about it.
“Was it the first quarter, was it the second quarter? He just kept running, hitting 3-pointers, hitting the midfielder, then running back and getting a block at the rim in transition,” Brown said. “He was making play after play and it was like, OK, he's back. There was no question at that point.”
The Celtics continued to struggle with a weak team, benching Porzingis until he was fully recovered and now with Vartron in the mix. Brown led the Celtics with 22 points, six rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Jayson Tatum had 19 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.
Ideally, Porzinis' presence alongside Jrue Holiday and Derrick White would keep those two main players from feeling like they have to provide all the scoring themselves.
Five-part harmony.
Even Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, who coached Porzinis for just one year before he was traded, praised his skills and seemed pretty much ready for what was to come.
“We're a good team when guys are down, but when we get everyone together, we're a really special team,” Tatum said. “Like I said, how he was able to transition after being out six, seven weeks and come out and finish the first half the way was a big inspiration for us going into the game.”
Tatum admitted to feeling nervous before the game, but said it was the good kind of nervousness — the kind of first-day-of-school nervousness where you lay out your best clothes on your bed the night before and make sure your sneakers are especially clean to impress and set the tone for everyone around you.
Tatum didn't need to be the do-it-all type, which he will likely be required to be before the series is over, but it was Porzingis who took center stage.
“I know the story will be about how he plays because he's been out for a month, but that's what he's done his whole career,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “He's a great player. He's been great for us. We're here because of what he's done. It doesn't matter how long he's been out. He's talented and he puts in the work, so he's going to play.”
Porzingis's arrival and relative health puts the Celtics in a hardly enviable position: It's not enough to just win, they have to dominate, and do it in style.
Any setbacks will be thoroughly analyzed, maybe because he plays for the Celtics, or maybe because he was so close to tasting champagne these past few years.
But maybe it was Porzingis, rescued from Washington's Bad News Bears after two years in obscurity, that made a great team a dominant one, as was evident when the Celtics jumped out to a 29-point lead before halftime.
“I think you guys saw that pretty clearly throughout the season, the fact that we were healthy most of the time, how we played and how effective we were both offensively and defensively,” Tatum said. “KP was a big part of that and our success this season.”
Sure, there were frustrating moments, as the Celtics seemed lost and over-eager to shoot 3-pointers, but the Mavericks showed their worth in this series, cutting the lead to eight points early in the third quarter.
But the Celtics quickly found their feet, closing off lanes that Doncic and Irving were slowly opening up as they went on a 14-0 run to restore order. Doncic led all scorers with 30 points, but his one assist was the lowest of his playoff career. Outside of Doncic's efforts, the Mavericks made just 3 of 15 3-pointers.
And that only allowed the Mavericks to advance to the lane, where Porzingis, Al Horford, Tatum and Brown were waiting. Porzingis and Brown blocked three shots apiece, and Brown smashed Irving's layup out of bounds, much to the delight of Celtic fans still upset over Irving's departure in 2019.
“Every game has its own story,” Brown said. “We just have to stay prepared, stay calm and take it one game at a time.”
The story of this story is remembering that smiling redhead and squinting to spot the resemblance to the man marching slowly down the sideline as cheers sent him soaring into the air.
