SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porzingis will miss a fourth consecutive game on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Lakers with what the team is listing as a general illness.
“I can’t really say anything more on it,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s a medical issue way beyond my capabilities explaining anything. He’s sick. He won’t play. We will keep monitoring him.”
This comes one day after Kerr went on local Bay Area radio and stated that Porzingis isn’t actually dealing with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), despite Porzingis publicly detailing his battle with it in the last year.
The Warriors acquired Porzingis at the February trade deadline from Atlanta for Jonathan Kuminga.
“I read about the POTS diagnosis and called the Hawks [general manager] Onsi Saleh,” Kerr said. “He’s a good friend of mine and I said ‘Is this POTS story real?’ He said it’s actually not POTS. That was some misinformation that was out there.”
Kerr walked that hypothesis and assessment back on Saturday when asked to clarify.
“It was a stupid mistake by me to talk about something I’m not qualified to talk about,” Kerr said. “Even trying to discuss the diagnosis, that was a mistake. I need to leave that to professionals.”
Porzingis first started struggling with an elongated illness in his final season with the Boston Celtics, later revealing that Boston’s doctors had identified POTS as the cause. He was limited to 17 games this season in Atlanta in part due to illness.
Porzingis has only appeared in one of his first eight games with the Warriors. Kerr said his status for Monday’s game against the Clippers is still to be determined.
