Without Jayson Tatum, a desperate Celtics team rallied to keep season alive
"I believe in this group. Don't count us out yet."
Jaylen Brown and the rest of the Boston Celtics knew what was at stake on Wednesday night.
Another loss to the New York Knicks would have marked the end of the 2024-25 season — and a championship defense that commenced this spring with so much promise.
Still, it was hard for a reeling Celtics team to completely compartmentalize the emotions born out of seeing their best player, Jayson Tatum, crumpled to the floor in pain on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
Just 48 hours later, Tatum is recovering in a hospital — his availability this season and potentially next year dashed due to a ruptured Achilles tendon — while his teammates sit on the brink of elimination.
“Seeing our brother go down was tough, and he texted us today before the game,” Derrick White said of Tatum. “He’s cheering us on, so that was cool to hear.”
As Brown noted on Wednesday, there is no manner in which Boston can replicate the scoring touch, defensive acumen, and outright production Tatum brings to the parquet floor when at the height of his powers.
But even with Tatum no longer in the equation, a desperate Celtics team wasn’t prepared to just roll over on Wednesday night.
With their season on the line, both Brown and fellow veteran Al Horford addressed their teammates ahead of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Their message?
“Just come out and play,” Brown said. “The air kind of left the room after hearing the news with JT —so we didn’t want to go out like that. We didn’t want to make excuses or give up or turn the season in like people would expect.
“We just said to the guys, said to each other. ‘Just come out, keep an open mind, be ready to go, guard your ass off, and take it from there.’ and we were able to find a way to win tonight.”
With their backs against the wall and their best player on the mend, the Celtics kept their season alive for at least a couple more days — beating New York, 127-102, to force Game 6 at Madison Square Garden on Friday night.
“Whatever it is that we’ve got to go through, there’s no bunch of people I’d rather do it with than the guys in that locker room,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “It’s that simple.”
Sans Tatum, Boston’s lineup stalwarts like White (34 points) and Brown (26 points) led the way for the shorthanded Celtics — while bench regular Luke Kornet was immense (10 points, nine rebounds, seven blocks) in an elevated role following another rough showing from an ailing Kristaps Porzingis.
No longer afforded the option to give the ball to Tatum in search of a crunch-time basket, the Celtics both remained steadfast to their trey-heavy approach (12-of-30 from 3-point range) while also showing more playmaking poise on the offensive side of the ball.
Brown led the charge in that area with a career-best 12 assists and eight rebounds for Boston, while only getting knocked for two turnovers.
Boston cashing in on its barrage of 3-pointers is usually a sure sign of a Celtics’ victory. But perhaps the most telling metric for Mazzulla’s team is assists — as Boston is now 4-0 this postseason when recording 20 or more assists.
As noted by WEEI’s Justin Turpin, the Celtics posted more assists (16) than the Knicks recorded made field goals (10) in the second half — paving the way for a 68-43 run for Boston in the third and fourth quarters.
The Celtics will need to stick to a similar approach on Friday night if they want to bring this series back to Boston.
“I mean, our back’s against the wall,” White said. “It’s win or go home at this moment, so none of us want to go home. We understand that it’s only going to get tougher, we haven’t won anything yet. Just have to find a way to go to New York and win a game.”
The odds may not be in Boston’s favor entering Friday night in New York.
But at this point, Brown and the Celtics aren’t giving much credence to whatever outside noise is fluctuating around Boston’s chances of making this a series.
“It’s easy to write things off,” Brown said. “It’s unfortunate what happened with JT, but there’s basketball left to be played. I believe in this group. Don’t count us out yet.”
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