BOSTON -- A bloodied Kristaps Porzingis smiling and saluting a raucous TD Garden crowd perfectly summed up the first two games of the Boston Celtics' opening series against the Orlando Magic.
The Magic vowed to continue "mucking things up" after Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's hard foul injured Jayson Tatum in Game 1, forcing the C's superstar to miss his first career playoff game. They followed through with that promise with an even more physical Game 2.
During the second quarter, Caldwell-Pope again was the center of attention after tripping Celtics veteran Al Horford. The 38-year-old big man took exception, causing a brief dust-up between the two sides.
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SIGN UP HERE Late in the third, Kristaps Porzingis was bloodied after taking an elbow from Magic center Goga Bitadze. The Celtics big man left for the locker room, but he returned shortly thereafter with a bandage on his forehead and a loud ovation.
Porzingis received five stitches on his forehead and played through the ailment, finishing with 20 points and 10 rebounds. After the Celtics' 109-100 victory, he told NBC Sports Boston's Abby Chin that the injury "looked worse than it felt." It was reminiscent of the cut he sustained on his nose during the team's April 4 win over the Phoenix Suns.
While he could have played it safe and sat out the rest of the game, Porzingis couldn't turn down the opportunity to fire up the crowd with another WWE-style entrance.
"I love my WWE moments, for sure," Porzingis said during his postgame press conference. "It just happens in the game. I always love engaging with the crowd. I already knew getting hit again, blood again, the crowd was gonna love it. ...
"How could I not come out?" he added. " Oh, I have five stitches, I can't play.' My legs work. I like these moments. ... Get a little love from the crowd ... this is not gonna stop me."
Predictably, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla enjoyed the bloody scene.
“I like watching him bleed on the court," Mazzulla said. "I think it’s important. And then he comes back in and does his job."
The Magic "mucked it up" throughout, putting the C's on the free-throw line for a season-high 23 attempts in the first half. Boston finished 25-of-33 from the charity stripe.
Despite the Magic heading back to Orlando trailing the series 2-0, Porzingis doesn't expect them to tone down their physical style. All the Celtics can do is continue to play their game, with their elite offense against one of the league's worst.
"That’s how they’re gonna play the whole series," Porzingis told Chin. "They’re gonna try to muck it up, there’s gonna be borderline fouls all the time. At the end, we’ve got to have our runs, we’re gonna have guys hitting big shots, making runs, and we’re gonna show that we believe we’re the superior team."
Porzingis' jovial demeanor turned serious toward the end of his press conference as he delivered a stern message to the Magic and future playoff opponents.
"We're not gonna let anybody punk us," he said. "We expect teams to do this type of stuff, to try to get in our heads, to try to provoke us. To try to maybe get some reaction out of us.
"It's an emotional game, obviously. So we weren't surprised, but we're just not gonna take it. We're gonna hit them right back."
Porzingis' WWE-style entrances will have to wait as the Celtics will visit Orlando for Games 3 and 4. Game 3 is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET Friday on NBC Sports Boston.
