Before the current campaign began, Jayson Tatum, the star player for the Boston Celtics, called a meeting of his “six starters,” primarily to make sure everyone was okay with whoever would not start. Al Horford took on the reserve role sixteen years into his NBA career, confident that his No. 42 would still be called upon when necessary.

And Horford is required more than ever because the starting center for the Celtics, Kristaps Porziņģis, was sidelined Wednesday night’s close-out first-round victory against the Miami Heat due to a right soleus strain.

“The way that I approach things, it’s about whatever I can do to help our team win, put us in the best position, and how I can impact a team with that,” Horford stated to Yahoo Sports. “And I had an easy mentality. I was given a decision to make at that point, and in the end, I am aware of my abilities and what I can provide to a team. All I had to do was do it now, but in a way that wasn’t familiar to me.

“In the end, it was like, ‘I accept it, I stay the course, and I’ll be ready for that when my opportunities come.’…” It happened during the season, and I had to be prepared to take charge now that it had.”

After winning Game 5 118-84 on Wednesday, the Celtics will have some time to determine Porzingis’s condition. It is a challenging injury to evaluate. Porzingis runs the danger of damaging his Achilles tendon if he returns too soon. According to In Street Clothes, recovery takes an average of 17 days, although more severe strains might take up to 6 weeks. That makes the difference between maybe missing the NBA Finals and making it back in time for the conference finals.

Before the Celtics defeated the Lakers in Game 5, Porziņģis suffered an injury. “We’re just going to give it a week and see where he’s at,” second-year coach Joe Mazzulla said. “see how he responds to the treatment over the next week.”

Star player for the Milwaukee Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo has not played since April 9 because to a soleus strain. He is labeled as doubtful for Thursday’s Game 6 against the Indiana Pacers, which takes place 22 days later.

In a week, Luke Kornet, the backup center for Boston, who will also play more minutes due to PorziŇĿis’s absence, will return from a minor soleus injury. Though he responded on X (previously Twitter) immediately after, Porziņģis’ response to his strain did not appear to be mild: “Thanks for all the support, will be good.”

It appears that Porziņģis may still be among us.

“He wants to be out there bad,” exclaimed Jaylen Brown, Porziņģis’ carpool teammate and game-high scorer with 25 points in just 26 minutes during the decisive victory. Even though you just met him, you can tell he is hurting to be apart from his team because of his smile. However, I just informed him that we would hold it down. We won’t skip a beat when you return, so please focus on your recuperation and return in good health.”

In any case, on Wednesday, Horford and Kornet—the big men for a title favorite, a soon-to-be 38-year-old, and an NBA journeyman—went to work. In 41 minutes of yet another rout of the Heat, they combined for 10 points (on 4-for-5 shooting), 13 rebounds, and five assists. The Celtics hardly needed Porziņģis against undermanned Miami. They might not require him in a second-round matchup with the Orlando Magic or Cleveland Cavaliers. They could even breeze through the conference finals without his presence.

“We still have tests to go through throughout these playoffs, especially now with KP out, but I think we’re up to the challenge,” Brown stated. “I’m happy about it. We’re getting our diplomas. We are not yet graduates.”

Recall that Horford is no pushover. Despite having missed six seasons, he is a five-time All-Star. It was only two years ago that he began for a Celtics club that made it to the Finals. The only active player with more playoffs experience than Horford is LeBron James. Thus, Horford was scarcely phased by Miami’s Bam Adebayo’s attempt to set the tone on the first play of Game 5 when he went through his screen.

“I still have the same mindset,” stated Horford, who helped Boston defeat the Heat with three assists in their first-quarter 41-point victory. “I want to influence the game and add excitement to it. I simply believe that I will likely be placed in situations where I can occasionally make more offensive plays, as I believe we witnessed tonight. JT was getting doubled in the first half, but he was kicking it to me, and I was finding folks to shoot at. My return from the bench usually occurs in a different situation. I’m more like spacing out and such things.”

Mazzulla, who desires to play faster in PorziŇģis’ absence, continued, “One of the things coming into the season was being able to win games in different ways with different lineups.” “Even when KP was healthy, we still played small, did a bunch of stuff, played double bigs, so you just have to develop a bunch of different identities to be able to get into different playoff series, when you have different matchups, and we’ve been able to do that because of the guys’ attention to detail and their buy-in towards making the most sense, doing whatever it takes to win that particular game and having different identities.”

Horford played Tatum and Brown in his 75th postseason match on Wednesday. (In contrast, the only Magic players who had played in more than eight postseason games prior to this season were Joe Ingles and Gary Harris.) Boston’s transition from one starting unit to the next is facilitated by their synergy.

According to Horford, “it’s helped a lot,” Yahoo Sports said. We’ve had a lot of success together, and I’ve been here since JB and Jayson’s rookie years, so we have a certain amount of mutual familiarity and trust. We seem to feed off each other as I strive to make the game easier for them and look for ways that I can make an effect. The effort we have invested will be evident. We’re not attempting to solve problems together. You can tell we’ve been doing this for a long time, in my opinion.”

These Celtics also look to Horford as their spiritual leader. As “my favorite teammate I’ve ever had” and “one of the best off-court leaders in the NBA,” respectively, Tatum and Brown have described Horford. Wednesday, midway through the second quarter, Horford got a foul, collected back-to-back offensive rebounds, and flexed in front of Boston’s bench. The crowd at TD Garden erupted. The veteran will be the focal point for the Celtics.