BOSTON — Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid reveled In the Celtics’ heavy loss at home, as the Atlanta Hawks’ 119-117 victory in Game 5 on Tuesday, he sat out two days with a sprained right knee.
Inside Boston’s locker room, Marcus Smart couldn’t find an exit fast enough. Jayson Tatum, the No. 2 seed’s superstar answer to Embiid, sat dejected, his knees encased in snow, one hand covering his face as he stared blankly at his phone, the rest of his teammates showered, dressed. were and filtered out.
In the hallways of TD Garden, Celtics officials, employees and family members were stunned by the loss, even angry, as they all understood the repercussions of failing to close out their first-round series.
“Gave them life and ***” said one.
“Now they have to go back to Atlanta,” said another.
“I’m not going with them.”
This is what Atlanta’s Trae Young does with opponents. For all his foibles, the diminutive point guard shoots for their hearts, and when he connects, he basks in their pain. And, man, did he connect on a 30-footer over Jaylen Brown with 2.8 seconds left. Young’s fifth trey of the night erased Derrick White’s go-ahead free throw moments earlier and pulled the seventh-ranked Hawks to within 3-2 in this best-of-seven.
The 3-pointer came in 47 minutes and 47 seconds after Young’s first game-high 38 points — naturally one more triple off the opening high. In between, he played 44 minutes, including the entire second half in the absence of suspended backcourt mate Dejonte Murray, and Atlanta trailed for much of it.
The Celtics led by as many as 13 points and 111-99 with 5:24 left in the fourth quarter — and possibly the series. The young man paid no mind. He found Onyeka Okongwu for a layup and his 13th assist of the night. Back-to-back John Collins buckets cut the lead in half, and Young drilled a 27-footer to pull the Hawks within 111-108 at the three-minute mark, silencing the last of the “overrated” chants from the Boston crowd.
“When people do that, I think it’s just an absolute honor,” said Young, who struggled mightily during the first two games in Boston. “They don’t do that to everybody. You know what I’m saying. I’ve been in the moment my whole life. That’s what I do. I’m not afraid of it. I’ve worked hard to be afraid of the moment.”
Young tied the game with a 26-footer on the next possession. After a Robert Williams III put-back returned the lead to Boston, Young drew a foul from Al Horford, and Tatum’s complaint on the call resulted in a technical foul. Young made all three free throws for a 114-113 edge and Atlanta’s first lead before halftime.
“Fourth quarter, close game, being with Trey my whole career, I know what time it is — it’s ice Trey time,” said Collins, who added 22 points. “He does his thing. He’s clutch, and he wants to be in those moments. He wants the big shot. It’s normal for me to see him go into that mode and do what he does.”
Tatum found Williams for an alley-oop and a one-point advantage with 25.6 seconds left. Young and White traded free throws, setting the stage for a 30-footer that sent the series back to Atlanta for Game 6.
“Shots started going in,” Young said, “and kept going in.”
When the buzzer sounded on Tatum’s fumble, Young scored Atlanta’s final 14 points and single-handedly outscored Boston’s offensive offense by eight points in the final five minutes of the game.
“When you give life to a team,” said Brown, who scored a team-high 35 points, “you leave it to chance.”
As soon as Young returned to the locker room as a result of his winner, he FaceTimed Murray, who will be available Thursday night.
“I told him to be ready,” Young said. “I told him before the game that we’re going to take care of business so he can play in Atlanta, so I can’t wait to see everybody in Atlanta.”
Young’s heroics punctuated Boston’s comedy of errors. The Celtics committed four turnovers in those final five minutes. Blake Griffin saw his first playing time of the series in the fourth quarter. First-year coach Joe Mazzulla benched Malcolm Brogdon and replaced White — his third-best player in the series — with Smart, all while Atlanta doubled Tatum and pushed the athleticism for a comeback. Smart inexplicably fouled Young at midcourt after Boston took the lead with 15.8 ticks remaining, and White’s entry pass in the final seconds never found Horford, who set up a position on the block.
“We lost our momentum a little bit on the offensive end, partly on me trying to make sure we ran a good play,” said Mazzulla, who didn’t run out of time as the lead evaporated. “We talk about playing fast down the stretch, and we lost a little bit of our momentum, which allowed them to pressure us and get into the passing lane.”
Two days after Tatum stressed the importance of winning Game 5 and avoiding the long streak that contributed to his fatigue in last season’s Finals, he was sweating from a familiar subpar effort.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Celtics and their families cleared the long hallway from media availability to the locker room, where a smiling Young sipped from a small cup of water. Ice cold, we suppose.
“It was loud,” he said of the once-raucous arena he silenced.
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