Derrick White can’t fix Jayson Tatum — but he followed his directive to help save the Celtics’ season

BOSTON — Earlier than Wednesday’s elimination recreation in opposition to the Knicks, Jayson Tatum despatched his Celtics teammates and coaches a textual content urging them to maintain preventing.

His message?

“Preserve attempting to perform the objective,” recalled Luke Kornet.

So, with their season on the point of collapse, they put collectively one in all their finest postseason performances en path to a 127-102 win, forcing a Sport 6 in a sequence they as soon as trailed 3-1.

“You simply depend on the character of the blokes, the togetherness, the workers,” Mazzulla stated. “On the finish of the day, you don’t get to select the take a look at that you’ve got. You simply decide the way you reply to them, and that’s type of how life works.”

At a nationwide degree, the Celtics’ obituary started to be written even earlier than it was formally introduced that Tatum — the workforce’s main scorer, playmaker, and rebounder this season — had ruptured his Achilles tendon. The Ringer’s Michael Pena penned a narrative titled: “This Is the Finish of the Celtics as We Know Them.”

However 61-win defending champions don’t simply collapse as a result of one participant will get damage, even when that participant is likely one of the finest on the earth.

The workforce’s two longest-tenured gamers — Al Horford and Jaylen Brown — made certain of it. The duo gathered the group for a dialog with a unified message: the Celtics, similar to Tatum communicated, needed to hold preventing.

And, all of it needed to start on the defensive finish.

“Protection. That’s all I’m speaking about — protection,” Brown stated. “Simply, nothing straightforward. Guard your yard, discover a approach to get stops, dig deep, mano a mano, win your matchups, play protection. That’s just about been the emphasis.”

Nobody tried to attenuate the feelings of Tatum’s harm, or deny that it could be tough to interchange the six-time All-Star.

“On the similar time, we do have a chance to maneuver ahead,” Kornet stated of Brown and Horford’s message. “You simply gotta take it in the future at a time.”

Derrick White helped spearhead the victory with a 34-point onslaught

The scoring was going to have to come back from someplace.

Enter Derrick White.

White, one in all Tatum’s closest buddies on the roster, appeared nearly helpless when requested after the win how he was navigating the feelings of Tatum’s harm.

The 2 buddies are quickly in several Northeastern cities: Tatum is in New York Metropolis, bedridden and centered on his restoration, whereas White is in Boston and preventing with the Celtics to stave off elimination.

“All I can do, actually, is to textual content him and inform him I consider in him and know he’s gonna have an excellent comeback from this setback,” White stated.

However White did an entire lot extra than simply ship Tatum effectively needs on Wednesday.

Within the celebrity’s absence, he put collectively a masterful offensive efficiency when the Celtics wanted it most: tallying 34 factors on 9 of 16 taking pictures, together with 7 of 13 from downtown.

He scored 14 of the workforce’s first 18 factors and racked up a game-high 19 within the first half, holding the Celtics’ offense afloat earlier than an enormous third-quarter surge blew the sport open.

And, in basic Derrick White kind, he swatted three pictures.

“Seeing [Tatum] go down is hard,” White stated. “However we’ve bought loads of guys out right here which can be extremely aggressive. And we didn’t need our season to finish tonight.”

However, White was removed from the one big-time contributor

Jaylen Brown put collectively one in all his most spectacular performances of the season: 26 factors on 9-17 taking pictures, a career-high 12 assists, and eight rebounds, all whereas hounding Jalen Brunson on protection and limiting him to 22 factors on 7-17 taking pictures.

Luke Kornet had his most impactful playoff recreation ever, tallying 10 factors (on 5-5 taking pictures), 9 rebounds, and seven blocks. Payton Pritchard, the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Yr, tallied 17 factors and three offensive rebounds.

As a unit, the Celtics shot 44.9% from three.

“It’s not like somebody can step in and do what JT does on the degree that he does it,” White stated. “So we type of must play a little bit in another way, and simply discover methods to create offense, to rebound, simply all the pieces he does on the court docket — everyone’s bought to step up. We did that tonight.”

Identical to Brown emphasised, it began on the defensive finish.

The Celtics held the Knicks to 35.8% taking pictures, together with 29.4% within the second half. And, they recorded 12 blocks, extra rejections than any recreation this season.

“The air type of left the room after listening to the information with JT,” Brown stated. “We didn’t wish to exit like that. We didn’t wish to make no excuses. We didn’t wish to come out and quit, or simply flip the season in, like what everyone else in all probability would count on. So we simply stated to the blokes, stated to one another, ‘Let’s come out, hold an open thoughts. Simply come out and play basketball. Get able to go and guard your ass off and take it from there.’”

The Celtics received Sport 5 handily. However, they nonetheless path the Knicks 3-2 within the convention semifinals, and have little margin for error shifting ahead.

“Our backs are in opposition to the wall,” White stated. “It’s win or go house at this second. None of us needs to go house. And so, we perceive that it’s solely gonna get harder. We haven’t accomplished something but. We gotta discover a approach to go to New York and win a recreation.”

For the primary time in these playoffs, the Celtics aren’t favored to win a recreation. However they’re not taking note of betting odds or media narratives. They’re sticking collectively via the adversity and preventing to maintain their season alive.

Identical to Jayson Tatum requested.

“I consider on this group,” Brown stated. “So, don’t rely us out simply but.”