NBA Rumors: Celtics’ Kristaps Porziņģis plans to return from foot injury vs. Clippers | News, results, highlights, statistics and rumors

Kristaps Porziņģis will reportedly make his season debut on Monday night against the Los Angeles Clippers, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

Porziņģis has yet to play this season after undergoing foot surgery five months ago following the NBA Finals to repair a torn medial retinaculum that resulted in a dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon.

Porziņģis suffered the injury in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, missed Games 3 and 4 and returned for Game 5. He scored five points in 16 minutes as the Celtics secured the championship over the Dallas Mavericks.

“I don’t care,” Porziņģis told ESPN’s Tim Bontemps about his injury the night Boston won the title. “I’ll fix it. That’s the most important thing, and after healing from my injury and everything, it’s totally worth it.”

He added at the time that he was aware that there was some risk.

“Of course,” he said. “I think something definitely could have happened, especially to equalize on the other stage I just came back from. There was definitely extra risk, but I didn’t care. I thought, ‘I want to give.’ everything I can and then fix it when I have to.’”

The Celtics will almost certainly slowly bring Porziņģis back into the squad and can afford to do so. What’s alarming for the rest of the NBA is that the Celtics are already 14-3 this season despite having to go the entire season without him and four games without Jaylen Brown and three games without Al Horford.

Once fully healthy, he will return to the starting lineup at 5, relegating Horford to the bench and once again giving the Celtics the best starting lineup in the sport alongside Brown, Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White.