Kristaps Porzingis will be only an observer when his new team faces his old team for the first time.
The Atlanta Hawks ruled Porzingis out for Saturday night’s matchup against the Celtics with left Achilles tendonitis. It’s the fourth straight DNP for the former Boston big man, who also missed time with a knee injury early this season and sat out 10 consecutive games with an illness last month.
Porzingis has appeared in just 17 of Atlanta’s 43 games this season, continuing a trend that persisted over his two years with the Celtics. He missed a total of 57 regular-season contests during his time in Boston and was limited by injuries/illness during both of his playoff runs with the C’s.
The Celtics traded Porzingis and a 2026 second-round draft pick to the Hawks this summer in a three-team deal that netted them a 2031 second and veteran forward Georges Niang, whom they later flipped to Utah. More importantly, the trade allowed Boston to lower its luxury tax bill and, along with Jrue Holiday’s trade to Portland and Al Horford and Luke Kornet’s decisions to leave in free agency, escape the NBA’s highly restrictive second apron.
Of those four departures, only Kornet has been an everyday contributor for his new club, appearing in 33 games with 22 starts (including one at TD Garden last Saturday) for the San Antonio Spurs. Holiday missed nearly two months with a calf strain, and Horford has been in and out of Golden State’s lineup with sciatica and a toe issue, though both recently returned to the court.
Boston will host Porzingis’ Hawks and Holiday’s Trail Blazers in consecutive home games later this month (Jan. 26 and 28). Horford’s Warriors don’t visit Boston until March 18.
The Celtics also will be shorthanded for Saturday’s game in Atlanta. The team ruled out starting guard Payton Pritchard with left ankle soreness after initially listing him as doubtful.
Pritchard, a first-year starter, leads the Celtics in assists with 5.4 per game and is the team’s third-leading scorer (16.6 points per game) behind Jaylen Brown and Derrick White. He’s coming off his quietest outing of the season, scoring a season-low two points on 1-of-4 shooting in 24 minutes in Thursday’s win over the Heat.
With Pritchard unavailable for the first time this season, third guard Anfernee Simons now is the only Celtics player who has appeared in every game in 2025-26. Simons starred off the bench against Miami, pouring in 39 points to lead Boston back from a 19-point deficit.
Reserve Celtics wing Josh Minott was ruled out for the sixth straight game with a left ankle sprain. The Hawks also ruled out second-year forward Zaccharie Risacher (knee) and listed All-Defensive guard Dyson Daniels as questionable (ankle).
