Derrick White can’t fix Jayson Tatum — but he followed his directive save the Celtics’ season

BOSTON — Before Wednesday’s elimination game against the Knicks, Jayson Tatum sent his Celtics teammates and coaches a text urging them to keep fighting.

His message?

“Keep trying to accomplish the goal,” recalled Luke Kornet.

So, with their season on the brink of collapse, the Celtics put together one of their best postseason performances en route to a dominant 127-102 win, forcing a Game 6 in a series they previously trailed 3-1.

“You just rely on the character of the guys, the togetherness, the staff,” Mazzulla said. “At the end of the day, you don’t get to pick the test that you have. You just pick how you respond to them, and that’s kind of how life works.”

At a national level, the Celtics’ obituary began to be written even before it was officially announced that Tatum — the team’s leading scorer, playmaker, and rebounder this season — had ruptured his Achilles tendon. The Ringer’s Michael Pena, for example, penned a story titled: “This Is the End of the Celtics as We Know Them,” echoing a narrative that dominated television and print media all day Tuesday.

But 61-win defending champions don’t just collapse because one player gets hurt, even if that player is one of the best in the world.

And the team’s two longest-tenured players — Al Horford and Jaylen Brown — made sure of it. The duo gathered the group for a conversation with a unified message: the Celtics, just like Tatum communicated, had to keep fighting.

And, it all had to begin on the defensive end.

“Defense. That’s all I’m talking about — defense,” Brown said. “Just, nothing easy. Guard your yard, find a way to get stops, dig deep, mano a mano, win your matchups, play defense. That’s pretty much been the emphasis.”

No one tried to minimize the emotions of Tatum’s injury, or deny that it would be difficult to replace the six-time All-Star.

“At the same time, we do have an opportunity to move forward,” Kornet said of Brown and Horford’s message. “You just gotta take it one day at a time.”

Derrick White helped spearhead the victory with a 34-point onslaught

The scoring was going to have to come from somewhere.

Enter Derrick White.

White, one of Tatum’s closest friends on the roster, appeared almost helpless when asked after the win how he was navigating the emotions of Tatum’s injury.

The two friends are temporarily in different Northeastern cities: Tatum is in New York City, bedridden and focused on his recovery, while White is in Boston and fighting with the Celtics to stave off elimination.

“All I can do, really, is to text him and tell him I believe in him and know he’s gonna have a great comeback from this setback,” White said.

But White did a whole lot more than just send Tatum well wishes on Wednesday.

In the superstar’s absence, he put together a masterful offensive performance when the Celtics needed it most: tallying 34 points on 9 of 16 shooting, including 7 of 13 from downtown.

He scored 14 of the team’s first 18 points and racked up a game-high 19 in the first half, keeping the Celtics’ offense afloat before a massive third-quarter surge blew the game open.

And, in classic Derrick White form, he swatted three shots.

“Seeing [Tatum] go down is tough,” White said. “But we’ve got a lot of guys out here that are highly competitive. And we didn’t want our season to end tonight.”

But, White was far from the only big-time contributor

Jaylen Brown put together one of his most impressive performances of the season: 26 points on 9-17 shooting, a career-high 12 assists, and 8 rebounds, all while hounding Jalen Brunson on defense and limiting him to 22 points on 7-17 shooting.

Luke Kornet had his most impactful playoff game ever, tallying 10 points (on 5-5 shooting), 9 rebounds, and 7 blocks. Payton Pritchard, the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, tallied 17 points and 3 offensive rebounds.

As a unit, the Celtics shot 44.9% from three.

“It’s not like someone can step in and do what JT does at the level that he does it,” White said. “So we kind of have to play a little differently, and just find ways to create offense, to rebound, just everything he does on the court — everybody’s got to step up. We did that tonight.”

Just like Brown emphasized, it all started on the defensive end.

The Celtics held the Knicks to 35.8% shooting, including 29.4% in the second half. And, they recorded 12 blocks, more rejections than any game this season.

“The air kind of left the room after hearing the news with JT,” Brown said. “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. Get ready to go and guard your ass off and take it from there.’”

The Celtics won Game 5 handily. But, they still trail the Knicks 3-2 in the conference semifinals, and have little margin for error moving forward.

“Our backs are against the wall,” White said. “It’s win or go home at this moment. None of us wants to go home. And so, we understand that it’s only gonna get tougher. We haven’t done anything yet. We gotta find a way to go to New York and win a game.”

For the first time in these playoffs, the Celtics aren’t favored to win a game. But they’re not paying attention to betting odds or media narratives. They’re sticking together through the adversity and fighting to keep their season alive.

Just like Jayson Tatum asked.

“I believe in this group,” Brown said. “So, don’t count us out just yet.”