Nobody does it like the Celtics

I’ll be honest — my spirit was pretty broken.

Seeing our star player go down with a potentially career-altering injury before he even hit the prime of his career was crushing. When the broadcast showed a clip of Jayson Tatum in absolute agony getting wheel-chaired back to the Celtics locker room, I couldn’t take it. I mentally checked out. It almost felt insignificant in the moment, but to make matters worse, the Boston Celtics fell down 3-1 in their second round series against the New York Knicks.

But the Celtic spirit is stronger than mine.

Backs against the wall. The engine of the team is down. No momentum in their favor. How does Boston respond? By blowing New York out by 25 points, the largest margin of victory in the series.

After Tatum went down, I didn’t think I would be able to enjoy basketball again until he returned to the court. I was already looking ahead to the potential roster changes that could be coming in the offseason, and how we could try to get back to competing in 2027.

Suddenly the thoughts of the future quieted down, though. As the game kept going, the shots kept falling, the defense locked in, and Luke Kornet kept showing out. The energy was electric. I couldn’t help but to feel the joy creeping back in.

Watching the guys put out the performance they did was beyond inspiring. It was a full team effort, too. Derrick White and Jaylen Brown led the offensive charge, putting up 34 and 26 points respectively. Jaylen also led the team in assists, dishing out 12 of them, a career high for him. Jrue Holiday and Al Horford provided their usual steady vet presence to level the team and fill in the gaps. And of course, the story of the night was Luke Kornet, who had an absolutely massive game. Luke provided 10 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 huge blocks which was a career high for him.

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How could you not love this team? How could you not love the fight that they play with?

It’s rare that you see a team respond to adversity like this team does. They always have the next-man-up mentality, and they never hang their heads. Joe Mazzulla does an excellent job preparing them for these moments. The players do an excellent job buying in and giving their best effort every time.

Luke had this to say in the post-game pressers: “It’s a situation none of us hoped to be in, but I think Joe throughout the year has been stressing the message that you have to love the situation you’re in and you can’t really control that. You can just control how you respond to it.”

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JB has been pushing through a bone bruise in his knee, something which has clearly limited him at times. Kristaps Porzingis has been fighting through an illness, and while he may have been disappointing so far, we can never doubt his heart. I think every Celtics fan knows that he is giving us everything he can. Luke Kornet was averaging around 13 minutes per game in the series, but stepped in to give us a huge 25 minutes in Game 5, a +20 for the night.

I’ll also never run out of good things to say about Derrick White, Al Horford, and Jrue Holiday. It feels like they can do no wrong. Whatever the team needs, they’ll always be ready to step up and give it. They are truly the glue that holds this team together.

Maybe the Celtics manage to get this back to Boston for a Game 7. Maybe they manage to make it to the next round and extend their playoff run. Or, maybe this series ends in New York on Friday. Regardless of what happens next, this game reminded me of something very important: to never lose faith in these Boston Celtics.

I don’t know how much longer this roster will be together. At this point I don’t care. I am choosing to live in the moment, and I will cherish every single one I get with this team. Nobody does it like these Boston Celtics.