The Celtics will attempt to close out the Heat without Kristaps Porzingis on Wednesday.
The team announced Tuesday that Porzingis will be out for Game 5 with a right soleus (calf) strain.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Porzingis “is expected to miss a minimum of several games” with the leg injury.
Porzingis suffered the non-contact injury during the Celtics’ 102-88 victory over the Heat in Miami on Monday.
On the play, Porzingis was dribbling the ball out by the 3-point line, getting guarded by Miami’s Bam Adebayo.
As Porzingis was about to cut, he came up limp, immediately looking frustrated.
He headed to the locker room with a towel over his face and was out for the remainder of the game.
The severity of Porzingis’ calf injury is unclear.
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was diagnosed with a left soleus strain three weeks ago and still has not returned.
The Celtics hold a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series against the Heat.
Should they advance to the second round, Boston would play the winner of the Cavaliers-Magic series.
Even without Porzingis, the Celtics are favored by 13.5 points in Game 5.
The Celtics are prohibitive favorites to win the Eastern Conference, at -245 odds on DraftKings, and are also the favorites to win the NBA championship, at +125.
Porzingis averaged 20.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game in 57 games this past season.
His career has been plagued by injuries.
He missed the final two months of the 2017-18 season and the entirety of the 2018-19 campaign when he suffered a torn ACL as a member of the Knicks.
He has missed 25 games or more in six of the last seven seasons.
