Kristaps Porzingis named to his first NBA All-Star team

OAKLAND — Kristaps Porzingis woke up to some bad news on Tuesday — his left knee hurt. Then he got some good news later in the day — he made his first NBA All-Star team.

Porzingis missed Tuesday night’s game against the Warriors with an injury suffered on Monday in practice.

But as Porzingis rested, he learned from his brother in a text message that he was named as a reserve on the Eastern Conference All-Star team. The third-year pro is averaging 23.3 points and 6.7 rebounds and leads the league in blocked shots at 2.34 per game.

None of those numbers changed on Tuesday as the Knicks went up against the defending NBA champions at Oracle Arena without their leading scorer, which seems to be a trend. Carmelo Anthony missed last season’s road game against the Warriors with a shoulder injury that was announced the morning of the game as well.

Anthony, by the way, did not make the Western Conference All-Star team. Anthony had been to eight straight All-Star Games.

Porzingis is joined as reserves by Indiana’s Victor Oladipo, Washington’s John Wall and Bradley Beal, Boston’s Al Horford, Cleveland’s Kevin Love and Toronto’s Kyle Lowry.

The Western reserves for the Feb. 18 game at Staples Center in Los Angeles are Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns and Jimmy Butler, San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldridge, Golden State’s Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, Portland’s Damian Lillard and Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook.

The reserves were selected by the league’s head coaches, who were not allowed to vote for members of their own team.

“I was happy, of course,” Porzingis said. “A dream of mine came true. I’m an All-Star this year and it’s only the beginning. I think it’s a dream of every NBA player and every kid before he makes the NBA.”

Said coach Jeff Hornacek: “It’s great for us, the Knicks organization. KP worked really hard this summer. He got put in a different role this year. Once we made the [Anthony] trade, he had to be our main guy. He definitely deserves the [selection]. I’m happy for him.”

Porzingis has been to the All-Star Game before. Twice. The Latvia native played for the World team in the Rising Stars Challenge game. Now he gets to play with the big guys.

“I’m going to be around a lot of great players,” Porzingis said. “Try to learn, ask questions.”

The first question Porzingis will ask is what team he is on. In a first, the NBA has done away with East vs. West and is having captains LeBron James and Stephen Curry (the leading vote-getters in each conference) pick the rosters without regard to conference.

“How does it work?” Porzingis asked. “We’ll see. That’s interesting. That’s something new this year.”

As for the injury, which the Knicks are calling “left knee irritation,” Porzingis said it happened during a lengthy practice on Monday in San Francisco.

“My knee’s sore,” he said. “I hope to be back next game. Hopefully. We’ll see how it feels. It’s nothing that bad, but it’s pretty sore.”

The Knicks play at Denver on Thursday and at Phoenix on Friday.

“He finished practice and woke up this morning and was pretty stiff,” Hornacek said. “Usually, you’re in the middle of practice, you don’t really feel it. You know you did something, but you’re fine, you finish practice, but the next day, ‘Oh, my goodness, it’s sore.’ ”

Kyle O’Quinn also missed Tuesday’s game with a contusion of his left calf, which was also suffered during Monday’s practice. Michael Beasley started in Porzingis’ place.

“Other guys are going to have to step up,” Hornacek said. “Guys like [Willy Hernangomez and Joakim Noah] have been wanting to play all year. They’ll get an opportunity. Mike is going to have to step in at the four spot and play. You just have to adjust.”

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.