Kristaps Porzingis, the big man for the Boston Celtics, batted off concerns about the calf injury he sustained during his team’s defeat to the Orlando Magic.

Fans of the Boston Celtics, inhale deeply. The calf injury that forced Kristaps Porzingis to exit the Celtics’ Friday night defeat to the resurgent Orlando Magic isn’t, in his opinion, a severe one.

With 6:44 remaining in the third quarter of Friday’s game, Porzingis left the game and did not come back. Shortly after, the Celtics announced that he would miss the rest of the game due to discomfort in his left calf. While he’s still waiting on an MRI, Porzingis emphasized in the postgame locker room that he doesn’t think the injury is “too serious.”

“Kristaps Porzingis tells the Globe he’ll have an MRI on his left calf to tomorrow but doesn’t think the injury is too serious,” Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe wrote on Twitter. “Said he felt a tweak running the floor. Did not slip.”

Celtics crumble to Magic without Kristaps Porzingis

At halftime, Boston enjoyed an eight-point lead against the rising Magic, a deficit that the home team completely erased to level the game at 62-62 after Porzingis departed halfway through the third quarter. Luke Kornet replaced Porzingis in the last six minutes of play, but the offense was without the latter’s crucial spacing and menacing pick-and-roll ability against the second-best defense in the NBA. The Celtics managed just eight points in that period of play. Despite being plagued by Jaylen Brown’s career-worst 1-of-14 shooting after the break and an inability to produce stops on the other end, they managed only 40 points total in the second half.On both ends of the court, Porzingis has been the main contributor to Boston’s league-best start to 2023–24. The skeletal key to the Celtics’ picture-perfect five-out spacing in the halfcourt, he’s never been more tough and deliberate whether attacking on the roll or posting up size mismatches. According to NBA.com/stats, Porzingis has also been a valuable rim defender, requiring opponents to shoot a meager 52.8% on 7.7 tries at the rim against him per game.Even though Porzingis was missed much in Orlando, Boston has managed to succeed this season even without him. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Celtics have a +11.1 net rating while he is not playing, which is a strong statistic that is somewhat higher than their top-ranked season-long record, which was achieved by very reliable two-way play. Most of those lineups without Porzingis are supported by Al Horford at center, but even with both of Boston’s greatest big men on the bench, teams have managed to stay afloat in the first month of 2023–24, demonstrating the unmatched top-end skill on this club.For Porzingis, injuries have been a big factor in his career. Due to an ACL tear, he missed the whole 2018–19 season. Since joining the New York Knicks for his first two NBA seasons, he hasn’t participated in more than 65 games. Fortunately, over Porzingis’ eight seasons in the league, musculoskeletal problems like a calf strain have been unusual for him. For a player his height, any lower-body injury is particularly dangerous, but Porzingis’s injury history and his post-game positivity indicate he is unlikely to miss a significant portion of the season, if any time at all. If he is unable to participate in Sunday’s Boston vs. Atlanta Hawks game, Horford is likely to start in Porzingis’ stead with Kornet providing support.