Luke Kornet was pivotal in the Celtics’ Game 5 win.
They were tied up at 59 at halftime with their season on the line.
The Celtics were trailing 3-1 in the series, and the Knicks had already been penciled in by most to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. Only 13 out of the last 294 teams to find themselves down 3-1 in a series have come back. The odds are greatly against it.
You shouldn’t ever count out a team of champions, though. Even when their superstar, Jayson Tatum, goes down with a devastating ruptured Achilles injury.
It takes more than one player to be a championship team, and champions know how to prevail and win. It takes a team effort, and sometimes it takes inspiring performances from places you don’t expect on your road to glory.
Already down Tatum, Kristaps Porziņģis was getting winded while dealing with a viral illness and wouldn’t return for the second half.
Enter Luke Kornet. The 29-year-old started his career with the Knicks as an offensively focused sharp-shooting stretch five, and in the eight years since his arrival in the NBA had morphed his game into a defensive force.
Kornet played six minutes off the bench in the first half, but he was called upon to start for Porziņģis in the second half.
Then he changed the game.
Four points, five blocks, five rebounds, and a +15 differential later, the Knicks were reeling. His defensive efforts aided in holding the Knicks to 17 third-quarter points on just 4-for-19 shooting.
Most notable was a stretch from the 8:19 mark to 6:40 of the quarter, where Kornet logged three of his seven blocks and Boston extended its lead from 72-68 to 81-68.
The Celtics entered the fourth quarter up 91-76 and never looked back, surviving to play a Game 6 in New York.
When it was all done, Kornet played a playoff career-high 26 minutes, scored 10 points on perfect 5-for-5 shooting, grabbed nine rebounds, blocked seven shots, and added an assist and a steal.
It wasn’t just a season-saving performance, it was a historic one. He’s just the 11th player since 2010 to record seven or more blocks in a playoff game, and he’s the only player to do it with a perfect shooting night as well. Jaren Jackson Jr. and Robert Williams are the only players who were able to record that many blocks in the 26 minutes or less that Kornet played.
The road to advancing in the playoffs, and certainly to another Larry O’Brien trophy, will be much more difficult for the Celtics without Tatum. However, with a deep roster full of championship experience and the ability of players like Kornet to step up and have game-changing performances, the door for them to do so will not be blocked.
Kornet and the Celtics will head back to New York working to force a Game 7 on Friday at 8 ET on ESPN.
