GREENBURGH, N.Y. _ Kristaps Porzingis' eyes lit up when he talked about playing on Christmas Day. It's something he said he's looked forward to since the schedule came out and can't wait to experience it.
There was some question as to whether the Knicks' second-year big man could play Sunday after suffering a bruised right knee in Thursday's win over Orlando.
Porzingis said he still feels some pain. But he participated in the non-contact parts of practice Friday, went through a long shooting session after the rest of the players were gone and declared he would be ready to play Christmas Day against the Celtics.
"Oh, it's going to be huge," Porzingis said. "At the Garden? Already the atmosphere (at the Garden) is unbelievable. I can't imagine what's going to happen on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it."
Porzingis wouldn't want to miss playing on Christmas for the first time in his pro career. He never did in Spain either. But just playing is what's important to Porzingis, the Knicks' second-leading scorer at 19.9 points per game. One of his main goals this season is to be able to play in all 82 games.
"I want to do it," Porzingis said. "Just to prove that I can do it, that my body can hold up. I'm really paying a lot of attention to all the recovery and making sure I'm ready for every game. Hopefully I have a long career in the NBA. It's going to be important for me to know how hard it is and being ready for every game, knowing my team needs me."
Porzingis wants to prove that he can play in every game to a lot of people.
"To myself and everybody from outside looking in at a skinny Euro," he said. "Obviously it's tough for my body but I want to go through it. I know I can. Hopefully I can stay healthy the rest of the season and keep going."
Porzingis, who missed 10 games as a rookie, said he could have gone through all of practice but the Knicks were being cautious and held him back.
He banged knees with Orlando center Nikola Vucevic on the first play of the fourth quarter. Porzingis said he felt "a sharp pain" and he couldn't put pressure on it at first. But it gradually improved. Porzingis could have returned to the game but the Knicks were winning handily.
"It's already getting better," he said.
The Knicks have played on Christmas more than any team. They will play for the 51st time after missing out last season. The Knicks' 17-65 record in 2014-15 likely contributed to them being bypassed last Christmas.
But the Knicks showed improvement last year, and Porzingis quickly became a popular player throughout the league. The additions of former All-Stars Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah to play alongside Carmelo Anthony and Porzingis have helped the Knicks (16-13) in the standings, and made it an easy choice to put them in one of the Christmas Day showcase games.
They will be wearing a newly designed blue jersey with New York in orange script writing specifically for this game.
"Just wearing those Christmas jerseys is special," Porzingis said. "But everything about it, you want to have a good Christmas and win a game and celebrate with your family. It's going to be a big game for us."
It's also big because the Knicks are one game behind Boston in the standings, and they were embarrassed by the Celtics earlier this season.
Boston buried the Knicks by 28 points in November in a game that Anthony was ejected from in the first half. The Knicks were whistled for six technical fouls in the game. Porzingis earned one of them.
"It's going to be like a redemption game for us," Porzingis said. "We didn't play well and all the other stuff wasn't going our way. It was just a tough game for us. We want it. We want it especially at home. We want to redeem ourselves."
