-12, 0, +11, -9, 0. 82 minutes. Those are Kristaps Porzingis' +/- stats against the Knicks. By his own standard, Porzingis is struggling. His production was already down versus his regular-season stats in the first round against the Magic and has fallen off a cliff against the Knicks.
Porzingis has struggled this postseason with a mystery illness, and we finally got some insight into what is hampering him from Coach Mazzulla's comments after Game 5:
"He couldn’t breathe. So, he was available if absolutely necessary. So that was just a decision between me and him. He was having difficulties breathing, but he wanted to be out there. And if we absolutely needed him, we would have been able to go to him and rely on him."Joe Mazzulla
Every fan of western movies knows that, in a gunfight, you aren't out of it until all your bullets are spent. But putting Porzingis on the court has been more of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He's been avoiding contact, been limited in the post, and his shooting has been abhorrent. It can be appreciated that post-Tatum injury, Mazzulla is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the Celtics' season alive, but Porzingis needs to get healthy first before revisiting him.
Luke Kornet came up big for the Celtics in Game 5 with a legendary 7 blocks off the bench. With the return of Sam Hauser to the rotation and increasing Kornet's minutes, the Celtics could run similar rotations to the Knicks and cut the rotation to 7 players. That's asking a lot of veterans, Al Horford and Jrue Holiday, but Porzingis is too much of a liability.
The Celtics only need to replace 12 minutes if they play the same way they did in Game 5. Its a tall ask but increasing Hauser and Kornet's minutes by 6 each, certainly appears to be a better alternative than what a weakened Porzingis offers against the fast-paced Knicks in two must win games.