BOSTON (AP) — Before the Boston Celtics took the floor without their biggest star on a night they had to win, Joe Mazzulla implored his players to just pour everything they had into winning one game.
They did, and the defending NBA champions earned another chance to extend their season.
Derrick White had 34 points, including seven 3-pointers, to lead the Celtics to a 127-102 Game 5 win over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night that kept them alive in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“We did what was necessary to do what we needed to do to get it back to New York,” Mazzulla said. “You don’t get to pick the test that you have, you pick how you respond to them.”
The Celtics connected on 22 3-pointers to post their first home victory of the series and first without Jayson Tatum following his season-ending Achilles tendon injury.
“Losing JT is tough,” White said. “But we’ve got a lot of guys that are highly competitive, and we didn’t want the season to end tonight.”
The Knicks will try again to win the series Friday in New York. If the Celtics win, Game 7 would be in Boston on Monday.
Jaylen Brown added 26 points and 12 assists. Payton Pritchard had 17 points and five 3-pointers. Luke Kornet finished with 10 points, nine rebounds and seven blocks. He started the second half for Kristaps Porzingis, who played just 12 minutes. Mazzulla said Porzingis was having trouble breathing as he continues to deal with a lingering viral illness.
The Celtics are looking to become just the 14th team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit in 294 attempts.
Josh Hart led the Knicks with 24 points despite briefly leaving the game late in the first quarter to close a bloody gash over his eye after he took an inadvertent elbow.
WOLVES 121, WARRIORS 110
In Minneapolis, Julius Randle scored 29 points on 13-for-18 shooting to send Minnesota to the Western Conference finals for the second straight year with a victory over Golden State in Game 5.
Anthony Edwards had 22 points and 12 assists for the sixth-seeded Wolves, who will face the Denver-Oklahoma City winner next. They could get five days off, if the Nuggets beat the Thunder on Thursday to force a Game 7 in the other West semifinal series.
Brandin Podziemski had a playoff career-high 28 points for the Warriors, who again played without star Stephen Curry because of the hamstring strain that forced him out of the second quarter in Game 1 and took the heart out of their entire offensive operation.
Jonathan Kuminga provided another energy boost off the bench with 26 points, but Podziemski’s performance came too late and the production from Jimmy Butler and Buddy Hield was consistently too little after they led the series-opening win. According to Sportradar, the Warriors hadn’t lost four straight games in a single postseason since 1972.
Rudy Gobert was a force around the rim with 17 points, Mike Conley had 16 points and eight assists, and Donte DiVincenzo snapped out of a slump with 13 points as the Wolves shot 77% on 2-pointers (36 for 47).
