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Boston Celtics star Kristaps Porziņģis reveled in the frosty reception he got inside Madison Square Garden during Saturday’s 116-102 win over the New York Knicks.
“I enjoy it, to be honest,” he told reporters after the game. “They went down in my years in Washington. I was still getting booed. But they’ve ramped up a little bit, me being with the Celtics.”
He had 22 points, four rebounds and four assists in the victory.
As Porziņģis alluded to with his postgame comments, it has been a while since he last played for the Knicks. He had a somewhat messy divorce from the team, so you could forgive fans for feeling a little raw in the aftermath.
But the 7’2″ center was shipped out ahead of the 2019 trade deadline. People seemed to move on, and the Knicks emerging as a top-four contender in the Eastern Conference helped within that context.
Now that he’s a member of the Celtics, though, fans have a reason to renew their hostility toward Porziņģis. He’s no longer playing in a different conference or occupying a starring role on a bad team; he’s a direct rival in the way of New York’s postseason ambitions.
With the Celtics and Knicks sitting first and fourth, respectively, in the East, their paths could cross beyond the finale of their regular-season series on April 11. Porziņģis might relish a seven-game playoff series that would assure him of at least two more trips to MSG.
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