The Celtics took care of business against the Orlando Magic last night, closing out the series in just five games with a 120-89 home win. Boston will most likely play the New York Knicks next round as they currently hold a 3-2 series lead over the Detroit Pistons. Regardless of who is victorious in that series, the Celtics will need Kristaps Porzingis to be a bigger contributor in round two.
Porzingis struggled to score efficiently from the field in the first round, shooting just 35.2% from the field and 12% from three. He failed to make a three-pointer in 4 of the 5 games and wasn't efficient on twos either. The Magic didn't have the offense to hang with the Celtics, but the Knicks certainly do, and Porzingis will need to contribute more in a potential Knicks series.
The Celtics have had success with the Knicks this season, but the Knicks are a talented team, and it is not difficult to make the case that the Knicks are healthier than the Celtics right now, given nagging injuries to Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Jrue Holiday.
Porzingis will be huge as he will likely be matched up with NYK Center Karl Anthony-Towns. Towns is a notoriously bad defender, and we saw this get put on display in the most recent Kristaps matchup against KAT, when Kristaps went for 34 points on 8/13 3PT shooting back on April 8th in Madison Square Garden.
Kristaps bouncing back from a poor series will also be important against a potential Knicks matchup due to the presence of OG Anunoby. Jayson Tatum has had lots of success against Mikal Bridges this season as Tatum has scored 35 points on 82.5% true shooting while dishing out 7 assists and 0 turnovers with Mikal Bridges defending him. Expect the Knicks to make an effort to keep OG Anunoby on Jayson Tatum. OG has done a much better job on Tatum and with Jaylen Brown clearly not 100% it will be on Kristaps Porzingis to add an efficient scoring punch on certain nights.
Porzingis has been great defensively all-season long but he will need to elevate himself offensively in this 2nd round series if the Celtics want to comfortably advance to the conference finals.