Celtics Leaders Delivered Key Message To Team Before Game 5 Win

It was only natural for the Boston Celtics to be emotional over the debilitating Achilles injury Jayson Tatum suffered at the conclusion of Game 4.

But they couldn’t carry those feelings into Game 5 with their season on the line. The Celtics somehow, someway had to refocus even with Tatum’s absence so apparently noticeable.

Jaylen Brown and Al Horford stepped up to shift the energy back into its proper place prior to the Celtics taking the floor for Wednesday’s 127-102 victory. Brown and Horford addressed the team Tuesday, making sure the Celtics played with the right mindset with Tatum sidelined.

“Just come out and play,” Brown told reporters of his message, per MassLive’s Souichi Terada. “Obviously, 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 no excuses. We didn’t want to come out and give up or just turn the season in like what everybody else probably would expect.

“So we just said to the guys, said to each other, ‘Let’s come out, keep an open mind. Just come out and play basketball. Be ready to go and guard your (expletive) off and take it from there,’ and we was able to find a way to win.”

The Celtics really couldn’t have drummed up a better response in Tatum’s absence. Brown and Derrick White, who netted a game-high 34 points fueled by seven 3-pointers, led the way while Luke Kornet turned in an unlikely performance off the bench by recording seven blocks.

Brown answered plenty of questions with his spectacular showing, shouldering a heavy load and playing the role of the team’s alpha dog with Tatum not sharing the floor with him. Brown totaled 26 points on 9-of-17 shooting to go along with eight rebounds and a career-high 12 assists. He played lockdown defense on the other end of the court, too.

The Celtics still have an uphill battle in front of them as they look at a 3-2 series deficit heading into Friday’s Game 6 at Madison Square Garden. But the Celtics gave themselves a fighting chance with the way they performed in Game 5.

And with that win, the Celtics have put most of the pressure on the Knicks as Boston tries to stave off elimination once more.

“I know it’s easy to kind of write things off,” Brown said. “Obviously, unfortunate what happened to JT, but we still got basketball to be played. I believe in this group, so don’t count us out just yet.”