SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors big man Kristaps Porziņģis missed his fourth straight game because of an illness Saturday against the Los Angeles Lakers, one day after he returned to practice and coach Steve Kerr expressed optimism that Porziņģis would return to the court.
Talking with reporters before Saturday’s game, Kerr said he made a “stupid mistake” in a radio interview Friday night when he downplayed the postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) diagnosis that Porziņģis received — and discussed at length with The Athletic’s Fred Katz in October.
“It was a stupid mistake by me to talk about something that I’m not qualified to talk about,” Kerr said. “So I regretted even trying to discuss the diagnosis. That was my mistake. And I need to leave that to the professionals.”
Porziņģis made his Warriors debut Feb. 19 but hasn’t played since due to an illness. When asked why Porziņģis was unavailable to play Saturday, Kerr said he was sick while declining to get into specifics.
“I can’t really say anything,” said Kerr, who added the team was unsure if Porziņģis would play in Monday’s home game against the Los Angeles Clippers. “It’s a medical issue way beyond my capabilities of explaining anything. He’s sick. He won’t play, and we’ll keep monitoring him.”
Kerr has consistently said the organization wouldn’t have made a move to acquire Porziņģis before the trade deadline if it didn’t believe he could stay healthy.
The only game Kristaps Porziņģis, center, has played for the Warriors was against Payton Pritchard and the Celtics, the team the big man played for the previous two seasons. (D. Ross Cameron / Imagn Images)
During Friday’s interview with 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, Kerr expanded on why the Warriors felt comfortable acquiring the 30-year-old big man, who has played just 60 games over the last two seasons because of health issues.
Specifically, Kerr said the Warriors were not concerned about the POTS diagnosis and added the illness that has recently caused Porziņģis to miss games is unrelated to any of his other health issues.
“When I heard about the trade, I read about the POTS diagnosis, and then I called Onsi Saleh, who was with us, he’s now Atlanta’s GM,” Kerr explained during the radio interview. “And he’s a good friend of mine. And I called him. I said, ‘Is this POTS story real?’ He said, ‘It’s actually not POTS. It was not POTS.’ So that was some misinformation that was out there.
“I don’t know if anybody’s asked him about it, but bottom line is whatever was bothering him in Atlanta that was keeping him out had nothing to do with the illness last week. So he was just sick. There’s a lot going around, as you guys know, and he was sick enough where he was losing a lot of fluid and contagious, so we just kept him home.”
In October, Porziņģis described to The Athletic how POTS had impacted him.
“It hit me, and it hit me like a truck,” Porziņģis said at the time. “The breathing wasn’t good. I did everything I could potentially to feel as good as I could, but my engine wasn’t running the way I wanted.”
Since coming to the Warriors, Porziņģis has praised the team’s training staff and repeatedly stated he feels confident he can stay healthy, but it remains unclear now when that return may be possible.
In other injury-related news, Kerr said during his radio interview Friday he has had conversations with injured star Stephen Curry, but he does not know when the 37-year-old will be back on the floor. Curry has been dealing with runner’s knee for the past month and has not played since leaving a loss against the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 30. Kerr said after Friday’s practice the Warriors will provide a more formal update Sunday. Curry was doing his rehab work in the Warriors’ training room before Saturday’s game.
“He’s feeling better,” Kerr said during the radio interview. “He got some shots up today after practice, but we’ll have a much more comprehensive update on Sunday when we have a better feel for everything.”