For any basketball fans who wrote the Boston Celtics off after Jayson Tatum went down with a torn Achilles near the end of Game 4, you might want to pull that train back into the station. The Celtics beat the Knicks convincingly at home last night to send the series back to Madison Square Garden for Game 6, and even without their First Team All-NBAer, they found ways to look like a team that’s still capable of defending their title.
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Derrick White and Jaylen Brown combined for 60 points to fill the void left by Tatum’s absence, and Luke Kornet nearly put up a points-rebounds-blocks triple-double in 26 minutes of playing time. The resulting 25-point win was the largest for either team in this series, and now all the pressure is on the Knicks to close this out at home on Friday.
On Get Up this morning, Udonis Haslem explained why he believes the Celtics are far from out of this, thanks to one key adjustment they made with Tatum out.
“Boston found something,” Haslem said. “Because they literally attacked [Jalen] Brunson every single opportunity they got. And it wasn’t just Jaylen Brown, it was Derrick White. Whoever had the opportunity to attack Brunson and put him in a spin cycle and get downhill on him, they put him in a spin cycle.”
Boston’s plan to attack the Knicks’ leader was so effective that they fouled him out of the game, despite him having zero fouls at halftime. The game was tied at that point, but the Celtics were so ruthless in hunting him in the third quarter that, in less than 10 minutes, Brunson had picked up five fouls and his Knicks had fallen behind by 13.
He subbed out with 2:45 to go and then came back to start the fourth, but picked up his sixth and final foul with over seven minutes remaining. At that point, the damage was done, as the Celtics were up 22. The Knicks have spent all series overcoming big deficits, but without their best player, they were helpless to do it again against a Boston team that’s clearly not done yet.
The Celtics are extremely dangerous, even without Jayson Tatum
Jayson Tatum is one of the best players in the NBA, but the Celtics wouldn’t be where they are if they didn’t have a special team around him. Jaylen Brown was the Finals MVP last year. Derrick White has stepped up. Jrue Holiday had championship pedigree even before helping Boston win the title last year.
Whatever pressure the Knicks thought they’ve felt up to this point in the series is nothing compared to what Game 6 will feel like. The MSG crowd will be insane, and everyone will expect the Knicks to win, but they’ve been mediocre at home, as their win in Game 4 snapped a three-game home losing streak. How will the crowd and the team respond if they fall into another big hole early?
Jaylen Brown said after Game 5, “I know it’s easy to kind of write things off, but we still got basketball to be played. Don’t count us out just yet.” Udonis Haslem certainly isn’t counting Boston out, and NBA fans shouldn’t either.
