Celtics take down Magic after a healthy amount of blood, showmanship and even laughter

New York Times

24-04-2025

BOSTON — The blood squirting from the head of Boston Celtics big man Kristaps Porziņģis Wednesday night looked fake, if you want to know the truth. It was that bright, red neon-looking stuff, like when professional wrestlers grab a convenient folding chair and whack it across the good guy's yap.
This was real blood all right, and a gusher, after Porziņģis took an elbow from the Orlando Magic's Goga Bitadze in the third quarter of the Celtics' 109-100 victory in Game 2 of this opening-round mismatch of a playoff series. But as if to illustrate how well this series is going for the Celtics, and how badly things are going for the Magic, Porziņģis just laughed. And kept laughing.
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He exited the court but was only gone for as long as it took to apply a comically oversized Band-Aid to his forehead. He made it back, smiling, in time to attempt the flagrant foul free throws that had been awarded to him. He then came out, smiling. He later returned, still smiling.
Nearly an hour after the game, when he sat down for a media availability, he was still laughing — even as he revealed that five stitches were needed to close the cut.
'I love my WWE moments, for sure,' Porziņģis said. 'You know me, I always love engaging with the crowd.'
Kristaps Porzingis was bleeding from his head after an elbow from Goga Bitadze.
Bitadze was called for a flagrant 1 foul. pic.twitter.com/64nmKwESQZ
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 24, 2025
This isn't to suggest the Celtics are laughing at the Orlando Magic. These are the playoffs. And Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla later delivered some serious coachspeak about the importance of playing within the margins, even if he couldn't resist having some fun with this, the second time in three weeks that Porziņģis has had a blood-inducing cut.
'I like watching him bleed on the court,' Mazzulla said. 'He comes back, he does the job.'
The Celtics are in good spirits at a time when there's some serious stuff going on. Jayson Tatum, who when teamed with Jaylen Brown gives the Celtics an epic one-two punch, missed the game with a bruised right wrist. And as often happens with underdog teams, the Magic are bringing some Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots to the series. When that happens, someone can get hurt, or, at the least, really ticked off. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who committed the foul in Game 1 that resulted in Tatum's bruised wrist, had a run-in with Al Horford that caused nostrils to flare but not fists to fly. It'll likely continue throughout the series, which resumes with Game 3 in Orlando Friday night.
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Now, about the Magic: It does get a little stale, this business of hollering that this or that lowly seeded team doesn't deserve to be in the playoffs, that it's all about television ratings and ad sales, feeding the fan beast, and so on.
But then you watch Brown cleanly pick Corey Joseph's pocket and go the other way to deliver a jam that gave the Celtics a 72-58 lead, and you're like, gee.
True, the Magic kept making it a game, as when a Franz Wagner 25-footer midway through the third quarter reduced Boston's lead to just five points. But the Celtics never lost their composure, even if Mazzulla maintained it wasn't about any of that.
'We're not responding to anything,' Mazzulla said. 'We're just playing the game. Every game is different.'
He's right about that. What made this game different was Porziņģis taking that elbow to the head that needed stitches to close. With apologies to Brown and his game-high 36 points — and make no mistake, Brown came up big on a night when the Celtics needed him to come up big — what people will remember is KP needing an in-game visit to the MD, and then laughing about it.
'We're going to be us,' Porziņģis said. 'We're not gonna let anybody punk us. We expected this kind of stuff, for them to get in our heads, to try to provoke us, to try to maybe get some reaction out of us, a technical or maybe something.
'We weren't surprised,' he said. 'But we're not gonna take it.'
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That was measured Kristaps Porziņģis.
Here's I-had-a-blast Porziņģis: 'How could I not come back out? Oooooh, I had five stitches, I can't play anymore. No. My legs work. Everything works. Of course, I'm going to be back out there. Yeah. You know me. I like these moments. I come back out, ooooooooh, I get the crowd going.
'In my career, I've had a lot of ups, but I've had a lot of downs. I've been out with injuries. So when I have the actual moments to play basketball, I try to do it to the fullest, you know? I'm smiling, I'm having fun, I'm trying to engage with the fans.'
When basketball ends for Kristaps Porziņģis, WWE awaits.
(Photo of Kristaps Porzingis: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)