The Knicks could not contain Derrick White, who scored a game-high 34 points.
The Knicks could not contain Derrick White, who scored a game-high 34 points.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
As the Celtics were warming up 90 minutes before Game 5, there was a horde of Knicks fans gathered above the opposite tunnel, greeting every Knick who walked onto the TD Garden floor with cheers and a “Knicks in five!” chant.
What’s more, TD Garden was filled with Knicks fans ready for the celebration, ready for the Celtics to relent after losing their franchise player to a devastating injury and lay down at home. Instead, the Celtics responded with their most impressive performance of the series, a championship response when it was desperately needed.
Their 127-102 win was a masterclass in teamwork and resilience from a team that was written off in the past 48 hours. Jayson Tatum texted his teammates prior to tipoff and offered his support, a day after having his ruptured Achilles tendon repaired.
The image of Tatum squirming on the Madison Square Garden floor in pain burned in the minds of the Celtics, but they had to move forward. There was still another game, and hundreds of Knicks fans made the trip north expecting them to eventually fold, to eventually realize they didn’t have enough.
That did not happen. There will never be a “Knicks in five!” because the Celtics fought valiantly to extend this series.
“We feel bad for Jayson,” guard Jrue Holiday said. “But nobody feels as bad as Jayson. He wouldn’t want us sitting around and not competing. And it’s sad because of what he’s meant to this team, to this city. But we had no choice but to bounce back. If somebody is down, somebody doesn’t play that night, the next man steps up. I feel like that mentality has always been in us. You feel it just a little bit more because of the situation.”
With the shooting of Derrick White, the playmaking of Jaylen Brown and the imposing defense of Luke Kornet, the Celtics built their fifth double-digit second-half lead of the series. This time, unlike Game 1,2 and 4, they held on, not only maintaining the advantage but building because of their poise and aggression.
On one fourth-quarter sequence, Brown passed up an open three early in the shot clock, a shot the Celtics would have pounced on earlier in this series. Instead, he drove the ball down the baseline and found an open Holiday breaking for a layup and a 106-83 lead with 7:36 left.
The Celtics went on a 55-31 run in a 19-minute stretch after the game was tied at 65 early in the third quarter. They played hesitant and erratic with big leads in the series, the primary reason they aren’t up 3-2. This time they played with more pace, more intelligence offensively and more intensity and physicality on defense.
New York never made its customary second-half run because the Celtics extended the lead with attacks on the rim and ball movement, drawing fouls to put themselves in the bonus early in each quarter. And the target was superscorer Jalen Brunson, who was whistled for six fouls in less than 14 second-half minutes.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla extended the series with his in-game adjustments, such as scrapping the Kristaps Porzingis idea for Kornet, who played his best game as a professional with 10 points, 9 rebounds and 7 blocked shots in 25:38. Kornet was a plus-17 in the second half.
President of basketball operations Brad Stevens has lined the roster with talent and while the Celtics are less imposing without Tatum, they are still capable of winning playoff games because of their unselfishness. White led the Celtics with 34 points on just 16 shots. Brown, coming off a woeful performance in Game 4, played completely under control with 26 points, 12 assists and 8 rebounds.
Now the pressure shifts more to the Knicks to close out the series against a shorthanded team. They obviously don’t want to come back to Boston for a winner-take-all Game 7 on Monday, so the Celtics enter the next game with perhaps a mental edge because the outside expectations are minimal. For the first time in years, the Celtics are underdogs.
“Four hours ago, we just had to win one game and now we just have to win one game,” Mazzulla said. “That’s how you have to look at it. We’ve got to win one road game. Obviously (the Knicks) are going to play their absolute best and we have to do whatever it takes.”
Besides extending the series, the most important facet of the Game 5 victory was shifting more doubt into the minds of the Knicks. They had a chance to reach their first conference finals since 2000, when most of their roster was in preschool. And they played their worst game of the series and it’s the second time in the playoffs they have lost a close-out game.
“We understand who we’re facing and we need to be better, flat out,” Brunson said. “Yes, they’re missing a big piece but they’re a well-oiled machine where they’ve played without (Tatum) and they’ve played well and we need to understand that.”
The certainty is the series is headed back to New York for another chapter, and for the Celtics, the hope is they have found something with particular lineups, Kornet and Payton Pritchard playing more minutes, and Brown checking Brunson full court as he did in last year’s NBA Finals against Luka Doncic.
A comeback is unlikely but it’s more of a possibility than after Game 5 because the Celtics showed their championship mettle when it was needed most.
“I believe in this group,” Brown said. “Don’t count us out yet.”
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.