Why Kristaps Porzingis was itching to return to Dallas from a Mexican beach
Kristaps Porzingis enjoyed watching Dallas Mavericks teammate Luka Doncic play in his first All-Star game from a beach in Mexico.
“I had a really good time with my brother and his girlfriend,” the forward said. “Chilling, getting some sun, recharging the batteries and feeling good. Laying on the beach, just resting.”
But by the final day of his three and a half day trip to Cancun, Porzingis was itching to get back to Dallas.
For the first time in his career, Porzingis is in a legitimate playoff hunt. The Mavericks are tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the sixth of eight playoff spots in the Western Conference at 33-22 before starting the second half at 6:30 p.m. Friday against the Magic in Orlando.
In his first three seasons in the league with the New York Knicks, Porzingis’ teams never won more than 32 games in a season and never sniffed the postseason.
“It’s always been tough when you’ve been below .500 and maybe after the All-Star break you have a little bit of that chance to make the playoffs,” said Porzingis, who is averaging 18.4 points and 9.1 rebounds in his first season with Dallas. “And you still keep fighting a little bit but there’s one point when you can’t trick yourself [any] more.”
Porzingis, for the first time in his career, isn’t having to “trick” his mind. In fact, the Mavs still see plenty of room for improvement over the final 27 regular-season games.
“It’s hard for some people to get their mind right to play the game so sometimes it’s not the prettiest basketball,” Porzingis said after the team’s first practice since the break. “But here in this case, we’re going to be fighting until the last second of the last regular-season game and try to get as many wins as we can and we’ll see where we end up. Our goal is to make the playoffs and that’s our mindset.”
Even while enjoying Mexico during the break, Porzingis said the pull-back to the season was strong.
“During the season you have to be a little on edge so it’s hard to disconnect 100 percent so that was always in my mind,” he said. “I was always eager to get back in the gym and lift some weights so I’m glad to be back.”
Porzingis and the Mavs are hoping the last game before the break was a sign of what’s to come. He and Doncic combined for 60 points, 25 rebounds and 13 assists in a 19-point win over Sacramento.
“It’s only a matter of time. It takes time, especially with all of the changes for myself and coming off the injury, being off for that long,” Porzingis said. “It takes time to get back that feel for the game, finding your opportunities within the offense, playing with a player like Luka.
“All those things you got to connect slowly those things and then they start to click and it comes more natural. I think we’re on the right path and with each game I think you’re going to see improvements and it’s going to look more natural and more organic.”
The Doncic-Porzingis tandem should give opponents the night sweats. At times the duo has flourished and shown glimpses of what the Mavs hoped would flower when they made the trade a year ago to acquire Porzingis from the Knicks.
When Porzingis’ outside shot is falling he draws attention from Doncic and makes the pick and roll game hard to stop.
“It just opens up the court for him so he can attack and create for himself, create for his teammates,” Porzingis said.
Knowing they’ve only scratched the surface of their potential has the team brimming with confidence.
“Especially with the way we started the season, 15-6, something like that. We didn’t really have a feel for each other and we can win this many games,” he said. “So we all kind of know how much room we have to grow still and that gives us the confidence to keep working, keep getting better and prove that moving forward.”
But don’t concentrate so much on the game-by-game numbers, he said, to decide whether it’s working. Look at the record instead.
“Some games [they] might be [high] and some games maybe not as much,” Porzingis said. “More importantly, we need to be effective when we’re out there, play off of each other and make sure everyone is involved, everybody is giving 100% on defense. I think that’s what we need to focus on and then all that good stuff individually will come to each player.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 6:02 PM.
