Kristaps Porzingis is showing encouraging progress in his injury rehab — even halfway across the globe.
The Celtics big man, who underwent surgery in June to address a rare leg injury, traveled with the team to Abu Dhabi this week and was seen hoisting shots during Boston’s practice at Etihad Arena on Thursday.
Porzingis is still a long way from returning to action; the Celtics announced a recovery period of five-to-six months in June, while he said recently he hopes to make his 2024-25 season debut sometime in December.
Still, it’s encouraging to see the 7-foot-2 big man already on the court putting in some (very light) work just over three months after his surgery.
“I was able to start to do more in August, and now end of September I’ve already been doing a good amount of stuff and feeling good,” Porzingis told reporters last week at Celtics Media Day. “Looking forward to keep making progress at this rate and hopefully be out there with the guys as soon as possible.”
The C’s will look to big men Al Horford, Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman Sr. and possibly Neemias Queta to step up while Porzingis is sidelined. The team went 21-4 in the regular season and 10-2 in the playoffs without Porzingis in 2023-24, so they’ll look to continue that trend in 2024-25.
Game 1 of Celtics-Nuggets in Abu Dhabi is set for Friday at 12 p.m. ET. NBC Sports Boston will broadcast the game live and begin coverage at 11:30 a.m. ET with a special edition of Celtics Pregame Live.
Game 2 will be on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 10 a.m. ET, with pregame coverage beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.