After undergoing surgery on his ruptured Achilles earlier this week, Jayson Tatum was out of the hospital and met with his Celtics teammates on Thursday at the team’s hotel in New York, writes Kyle Hightower of The Associated Press.
“It sucks to see someone go down like that who doesn’t deserve it,” Celtics wing Sam Hauser told reporters on Friday. “But he wouldn’t want more than us to just keep winning. We saw him yesterday. He seems to be in good spirits. Definitely thinking about him and trying to get some wins for him.”
After losing both their star player and Game 4 on Monday to fall behind 3-1 in their second-round series vs. New York, the Celtics found themselves facing long odds to advance. But they took Game 5 on Wednesday and can force a Game 7 at home if they can pull off an upset on Friday at Madison Square Garden.
While Tatum’s injury and their new underdog status has given the Celtics some added motivation to find a way to win the series, Payton Pritchard said on Friday that just getting to see their injured teammate on Thursday was an emotional lift for everyone, according to Hightower.
“We didn’t talk about basketball at all. That stuff is bigger than basketball now,” Pritchard said. “It’s seeing how he is as a person, how he’s dealing with stuff. The basketball side, we’ll handle that. But just want to check in as a friend.”
We have more on the Celtics ahead of a big Friday game:
- Outside of Tatum, the Celtics have a clean injury report for Game 6, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Hauser, who returned on Wednesday and played 15 minutes after missing three games due to a sprained ankle, isn’t listed, and neither is Kristaps Porzingis, despite the fact that didn’t play in the second half of the Game 5 win as he continues to battle the lingering effects of an illness.
- The Celtics have a decision to make for Game 5, according to Brian Robb of MassLive.com, who argues that Porzingis should be removed from the starting lineup and should perhaps even be benched entirely due to his diminished condition. Both Al Horford and Luke Kornet look like better options in the middle right now, Robb adds.
- In a separate story for MassLive.com, Robb contends that Pritchard needs to continue playing an increased role after logging a playoff-high 39 minutes on Wednesday. Even though Pritchard made just 6-of-17 shots in the Game 5 win, the team was significantly better when he was on the court, which has been a trend for much of the postseason. Boston has a +16.4 net rating and 122.9 offensive rating during the Sixth Man of the Year’s 274 playoff minutes, as opposed to marks of just +0.6 and 105.8, respectively, when he’s on the bench.
Is Hauser implying he enjoys watching people get injured so long as they deserve it? Kind of a strange quote. Hope everything ok w him…
A healthy Porzingis and maybe the Celtics would have a fighting chance. Gonna be tough down Tatum and more-or-less him. But hot shooting can cure a lot of ills.
Jumbo lineup with Porzingis Horford and Kornet.
Zone defense.
Porzingis hitting three three pointers in the first quarter in the MSG against the Knicks
Boos, zone defense and drama at MSG.
Hope Knicks win anyway.
KP is too stiff now and his three point shot is way off. If he can’t make a couple threes early I’d tell him to just play defense and tell the others to stop trying to force the ball into him. I think I’d rather go small against these Knicks. Go Celtics!
Porzingis is cooked. They’d have a good shot if he was at optimum health, but as usual, he aint.
If he is not hitting threes. Then he’s not mych use.
You want to maje dure there is a gm6 Then !!!!
“Coming into tonight, Jalen Brunson had played 546 total games in his career. He had fouled out in 4 of them,” another one said. “Tonight, he picked up 6 fouls in a 15 minute span of a playoff game to foul out.”
“5 fouls in 9 mins of Brunson bro they rigged him out of the game,” another one said.”
Truth is you concentrate on stopping or slowing down Brunson. Then there is a good chance you will beat Knicks. Everyone kniws it. Even the refs lols
Jaylen Brunson flops a ton and gets way too many calls. Of course, that’s what happens for stars. He’s the NBA’s best closer so keep attacking him right from the start. Get him to 6 fouls and again out of the game.
He doesn’t flop. He sells it. The guy gets hit. He is only 6’ tall. Defense is all about position. On offense he uses your energy against you. By stopping and going. He has learned that from Luka and has perfected it. NBA hasn’t figured him out yet man.
“Jaylen Brunson flops a ton”
He sells fouls because for several years he was not getting any calls. He had one of the worst whistles in the league for a while when he joined the Knicks. Around 20 shots per game with constant drives and contact but only 6 FTAs. He needed to adapt and sell fouls. He still doesn’t get a great whistle compared to other stars in the league (SGA, Butler, Embiid, etc).
Spank you very much !!!!!!!
Knicks by 38 move on to face Pacers ……
Pacers won series during season. So did Celtics .
NY should have them.
Turner is a terrible rebounder and Towns is averaging something like 15 in the playoffs. Not to mention Josh Hart and his effort.
NY has some great defenders in OG and Mikal I think that’ll give Indy problems.
Indiana has has really good contributions from its depth guys like Mathurin, McConnell and Toppin but I dont know how that’ll go against the Knicks who have a bunch of good defensive wings. Ofcourse you can attack Brunson and KAT is weak in the paint occasionally but Turner isn’t that physical guy, and Haliburton is the type of guy to really go at someone.
Instead of it all being about Brunson I think this series is more about the Knicks defensive wings and big performances from KAT.
Indy have really come from no where and beaten two really good sides tho and the Cavs with all their big names weren’t good enough. I’m expecting this to be NY’s series but Indy won’t make it easy for them
I like what you’re putting down, Simmons>Russ. Let’s hope you’re right!
Al:
As far as I recall , Knicks won the season series against the Pacers 2-1
Go NY …. Go NY …. GO ….
Go NY …. Go NY …. GO ….
I’d like Hauser to list the guys who do deserve to have their achilles ruptured.
It’s just an unfortunate way of phrasing it. Let it lie.