BOSTON – In the so -called last dressings of the Boston Celtic season, perhaps an entire era, blood was everywhere.
Josh Hart sat on the ground after taking a luke Kornet to the eye, blood has coated his face. On the other side of the courtyard was Kornet, a man obviously little put into service, treating a notch on his elbow.
But it was a serious moment. The Celtics’ back was pressed against the walls after Jayson Tatum torn his Achilles and the New York Knicks put them on the edge of elimination. They entered the night by helping Jaylen Brown to overcome his bald knee to offer a star performance. The Celtics desperately needed Kristaps Porziņģis to shake this virus which tormented it and looks like a semblance of unicorn again.
Brown delivered, but Porziņģis was always a shell of himself. With Mitchell Robinson who continues to dominate the bench, Kornet had to intensify. Although the Celtics will probably see the actor and fan of Knicks ben Stiller Courtside for match 6, Sam Hauser would have sworn that he had seen his “dodgeball” character on the bench on Wednesday evening.
“I think that (Kornet) channeled his own white goodman inner there,” said Hauser Athletics. “No one makes me bleed my own blood.”
The coaches wrapped Kornet’s arm, returned it there and looked at his energy catalyzing the rest of his team. So when Joe Mazzulla found Porziņģ is back in the locker room, he knew what he had to do. The coach said it was obvious that his star center “could not breathe” run and go down the ground.
Mazzulla has kept the idea that Porziņģis would find her game for too long. He should have had a bench of Porziņģis and raised Kornet earlier. Porziņģis was limited in this series just to the same types of actions as Kornet puts, but doing it with less strength, coordination and contact.
The Celtic coach had no other choice than to take the step that he should have a week ago. It was time to start Kornet in the second half.
The period that followed was the best performance of Kornet in his career, with 10 points on a shot of 5 for 5, nine rebounds and a career in career of seven blocks. He even generated a viral meme which reached the Celtic cloakroom.
– Only in Boston (@onlyinbos) May 15, 2025
“It’s funny, you put a round on Luke Kornet, he turns into Bill Russell,” said Hauser after the Celtics beat the New York Knicks 127-102 Wednesday to force a match 6 in New York on Friday evening. “Someone sent me a text (the same). It’s hilarious. They look quite similar.”
It was a moment Kornet par excellence, surreptitiously enlarging while capturing the spirit of its accomplishment. Listening to the conversation of the 7 -foot 2 inches rescue center of the Celtics, he always dances around the line of seriousness and surrealist. But he always has respect for his teammates, the winner thanks to his intelligent and effective work in the field and grateful when he has often exceeded his limits.
So when Kornet had the match in his career, his team was delighted, amused and just grateful.
“I know that we are kidding at that time, but you are talking about inherited games and what he did, it was that special, ”said Al Horford Athletics. “Just inspiring, locked up and his defense, his presence is what made us spend this moment.”
Kornet has not only brought physicity but also precision. He continued to block the shot after shooting from behind, offering to protect the traveling rim that the Celtics begged. He closed shooters without going beyond them, succeeding in locking them up when they tried to pass in front of him.
He even forced Mikal Bridges airball at the end of the third quarter just to attach the arc on the perfect period. He wrapped the Knicks offensive in a way that no one on the Celtics has approached all the series. For the first time outside match 3, the Celtics were alike.
Thank you for coming to Luke’s Block Party 🥳 pic.twitter.com/tuggxeflhv
– Boston Celtics (@Celtics) May 15, 2025
Kornet’s diving out of limits – as well as Brown – created energy in the third quarter which even passed Horford to the next level.
“It sparked us all,” said Horford. “This is one of those things you think You play hard, (but) I just think that his will was simply special. So incredible. He looked incredible. This alley he caught at the end, Unreal. »»
The seven Kornet blocks were a career summit because he managed to hit the grounds with impressive clarification. The Center of Celtics said that he felt lost in the moment, and not in the second time or doubting anything.
He was in a flowing state that made the Celtics look like a team that could improbably return to this series.
“It’s weird to say if it’s really real or that it quantifies,” Kornet said. “There is the old hot hand error. I don’t know if it applies to blocking photos. Someone can do the search. “
The victories that the Celtics have won in this series are not like any other they have known in the last two seasons under Mazzulla. He spent most of the persistence of his victories during this time by preaching the dangers of success, how the satisfaction of winning chips to the fear of losing. He spoke to a wardrobe that crossed the league with remarkable ease, but now it’s a team remembering all these summit lessons.
Against the Knicks, their victories were seasonal savers or even franchise savers. We examined Wednesday how Tatum injury could reshape the landscape of the whole league. But if the Celtics continue to push and remove a miracle race without him, this reinforces the chances that perhaps the new property will hold the cavalry of the caps of cap.
It is a really disconcerting place for a perpetual franchise at the top of the league, but they gain in time borrowed. In the wake of all this, Kornet repeated a Mantra Mazzulla contained in his team throughout the season.
“You have to like the situation in which you are and cannot really control this, but you can control the way you react,” said Kornet. “And whatever the situation present is the exact situation in which we are supposed to be and we need. So, yes, this is the only thing you can do on this subject and the only thing you can operate in life.”
Kornet had to bark towards the worship crowd and his adored teammates, but also until the end. The Celtics have avoided the surrender for one more night, losing the shock of the tear of Tatum Achille at the time of the crisis in match 4.
If they had held it together that evening and had successfully returned, they would have arrived in Boston attached and would return to New York at the moment in search of the next round. But they must love the situation in which they are currently, as perilous as it can be. There is no choice.
“There was just an energy in the building this evening, but mainly an energy in us in the locker room, it’s like doing or dying,” said Hauser. “If we lose, our season is over and it’s the same situation in Friday. We win, continue. We lose, the season is over. It’s as black and white as that.”
However, the Celtics manage the challenge of this moment, Kornet will be playing and having fun. He marks and flocks his hands like a dove, or whatever the eccentric celebration he will then offer. But the severity of the moment passes.
“I’m just trying to live in the moment and survive in the moment,” said Kornet. “But the barking continued, so shout at barking.”
(Photo: Charles Krupa / Associated Press)
