Kristaps Porzingis’ return is paying off for the Boston Celtics

In many ways, the Boston Celtics’ 2024-25 season began last night at TD Garden. The game against the Los Angeles Clippers marked the long-awaited return of big man Kristaps Porzingis to the lineup and finally reunited the starting five of their championship team. To celebrate Porzingis’ return from offseason surgery after five months, the Celtics defeated the Clippers with a 32-point victory.

The last time we saw Porzingis play, he was obviously hobbled and came off the bench in the decisive game against the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. This time he was there from the start and scored the first points of the game for Boston with a three-pointer. Now, he only hit one of his first four attempts behind the line, so it wasn’t all bad (to use a seasonally appropriate phrase).

While the center still looked rusty after major ankle surgery, he finished the game with 16 points, five rebounds and two assists in 23 minutes. Additionally, he added much-needed size and rim protection to a team that had few players at the big man position up to that point.

Of course, the real story wasn’t about Porzingis’ individual play, but rather the reunion of last year’s starting lineup with him alongside Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday. Last season showed that the Celtics were almost unbeatable when all five played their best. They proved that last night when they made 12 three-pointers against the Clippers in the second quarter alone, tying an NBA record, while en route to a 78-49 halftime lead.

The Celtics ultimately won 126-94, but there were some caveats. They had the advantage of playing a Clippers team at home at TD Garden for the second night in a row. While the Clippers have an 11-8 record, they are 4-4 on the road: a literal .500 road team.

On the other hand, the Celtics were also playing on the second night of a meeting – a fact that resulted in Al Horford, theoretically Porzingis’ overqualified backup, being unavailable – and the Clippers were on a five-game winning streak. Nevertheless, this game was effectively over a few minutes after the end of the first quarter.

The stunning win could be a turning point in Boston’s young season. The Celtics have a 15-3 record, good for second place in the East behind the red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers. They didn’t seem entirely unstoppable. They nearly gave up a 19-point lead to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday night, only managing to eke out a 107-105 win after Naz Reid missed a buzzer-beater.

They looked better last night, which wasn’t surprising. The Celtics traded for Porzingis and offered him an extension last year with the idea that he was the ideal big man to accompany the Tatum-Brown duo. During the 2023-24 regular season, they were rewarded with plenty of evidence that they were right on the money.

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However, Porzingis missed much of the postseason due to two on-field injuries, and this hardly slowed the Celtics on their way to Banner 18. This fact was enough to give rise to the idea that the center was more of a luxury than a necessity, even if that meant ignoring the fact that Boston’s quest was aided by a relatively weak playoff field.

Well, maybe.

While the Celtics should still be considered one of the favorites to win the championship without Porzingis, last night’s game provided further evidence that he makes them a fundamentally different team both offensively and defensively. The rest of the NBA should take note: These Celtics could be just the team to end the streak of outright NBA champions that began in 2019.