BOSTON — Tom Thibodeau is quick to rattle off an entire team’s roster ahead of tipoff. For the reigning champion Celtics, the roster begins with franchise cornerstone Jayson Tatum. And with Tatum out for the foreseeable future after rupturing his Achilles tendon at Madison Square Garden in the fourth quarter of Game 4, Jaylen Brown is next up as the Celtics’ 1A. Then comes Kristaps Porzingis, the former Knicks first-round pick turned-stretch five who the Celtics started in Game 5 alongside Al Horford.
But the Celtics are more than just their All-Star names. They are defending champions because they have one of the NBA’s most well-rounded rosters, a roster that’s gone 15-3 over the past two seasons in games Tatum has missed, including an 8-2 record in his 10 absences this season. Thibodeau knows this very well. It’s why he always says you can’t forget about the role players.
On Wednesday, the Knicks forgot about Derrick White. Derrick White did not forget how to shoot.
White capitalized on an inattentive Knick defense and lit it up at TD Garden for 34 points to avoid elimination with a 127-102 victory on Wednesday. The Celtics, without their All-Star scorer, without the engine that fuels a championship machine, live to see another day. There will be a Game 6.
Closing out the defending champions was never going to be an easy task. Little did the Knicks know it would cost a pound of flesh. The Knicks paid that price on Wednesday — but didn’t leave the other Garden with a victory in the bag.
“[Tatum’s injury] doesn’t impact how we prepare. We have to have the same mentality, same focus,” team captain Jalen Brunson said after morning shootaround on Wednesday. “They’re still the defending champions. They still have championship pedigree. They still have a lot of weapons that are dangerous, so there can’t be a difference of how we approach it.”
Instead, they left with Josh Hart’s eye stitched after he took a shot to the face from Luke Kornet, the Celtics’ backup big man who transforms into equal parts Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo every time he gets extended run against the Knicks. Hart’s eye bled down his face onto his jersey, a scene sure to became iPhone wallpaper material for many Knicks fans across the city. Coincidentally, he made four of his first five attempts from deep on the night.
But little else went according to plan for the Knicks, who couldn’t get to the rim against Kornet. The backup big man starred in his role and swatted seven shots in Game 5.
Everything else happened in-between the lines.
The Celtics didn’t play like a team that had lost its top scorer. They played with desperation — a team on the brink of a far earlier-than-expected playoff elimination. They mucked the game up from start to finish: hard screens, physical defense, unrelenting pursuit of 50-50 balls. And they targeted Hart, who was whistled as part of a double technical foul after a shoving match with Jaylen Brown. Without Tatum, Brown erupted for his best-scoring game of the series: 26 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting from downtown.
And on this day, there would be no comeback. That spell may have run its course in the second round.
There are only but so many times you can tempt the fate of the basketball gods, and after coming back from down 20 in Games 1 and 2, then overcoming a 14-point deficit to win Game 4, the Knicks found themselves down close to 30 in the fourth quarter.
You can’t win like that. Technically, you can — the Knicks have — but it’s risky and playing with fire. On Wednesday, the Knicks got burned.
Hart led the Knicks with 24 points and Jalen Brunson added 22 points but fouled out in the fourth quarter after picking up five fouls in the third quarter alone. Karl-Anthony Towns added 19 points, but the Knicks got just six points on 1-of-12 shooting from OG Anunoby and nine points on 4-of-14 shooting from Mikal Bridges.
Mitchell Robinson finished with eight points and 13 rebounds and made four consecutive free throws but did not play the final 7:36 of the fourth quarter.
The Knicks now must lick their wounds, recuperate and regroup for Game 6 at MSG on Friday. They’ll need to treat that as a Game 7, because if they fork up another game at home, there’s no telling what can happen at 100 Legends Way.