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The Boston Celtics responded to both the loss of Jayson Tatum and the challenge of facing a 3-1 deficit by defeating the New York Knicks by a final score of 127-102 in Game 5. After losing Tatum to a ruptured Achilles in Game 4 on Monday, the Celtics held a team meeting between games on Tuesday.

“They had a team meeting on Tuesday,” said Brian Windhorst on Wednesday evening’s Sports Center. “Before they went over the gameplan for Game 5, Jaylen Brown and Al Horford spoke to the team. They talked about how they needed to react. They talked about the important to send a message to Jayson. And then on Wednesday, the team got a message from Tatum after he was recovering from his Achilles surgery encouraging them. Telling them that he would be bouncing back and that he was hoping they would play great without him tonight.

“You definitely saw the Celtics play emotionally at times. It didn’t have the smoothest start to the game. But in talking to their players afterwards, they do think they were able to bounce back quickly after getting that message from Tatum and also hearing from their veteran teammates.”

Brown had 26 points, eight rebounds and 12 assists for the Celtics. The Celtics will play at the Knicks on Friday with an opportunity to force a Game 7, which would be played on Monday back in Boston. No team has successfully overcome a 3-1 series deficit in the NBA playoffs since the Denver Nuggets against the LA Clippers in 2020.