Celts steamroll Knicks, send series back to N.Y.

BOSTON -- Derrick White had 34 points, including seven 3-pointers, to lead the Boston Celtics to a 127-102 Game 5 win over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night that kept them alive in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Celtics connected on 22 3-pointers -- tied for the most in franchise playoff history -- to post their first home victory of the series and first without Jayson Tatum following his season-ending Achilles tendon injury.

The Knicks will try again to win the series Friday in New York. If the Celtics win, Game 7 would be in Boston on Monday.

Jaylen Brown had 26 points and 12 assists for Boston. He became the first Celtics player to score 25 points and assist on 30 points in a playoff game in the past 30 postseasons. And more importantly, he provided the leadership the Celtics needed with Tatum out.

"I think his leadership came on the defensive end just with his physicality and his presence, that dive into the bench, kind of change the game for us," Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said, referring to Brown diving for a loose ball with the Celtics up by one point early in the third quarter. "There was other game-changing plays, but I thought that was one of them. He was just great on all levels. Just took it upon himself to guard Jalen Brunson, set the tone, and he did that on both ends."

Luke Kornet finished with 10 points, 9 rebounds and 7 blocks in a huge breakout game for the big man with Kristaps Porzingis playing only 12 minutes, all in the first half.

"I mean, he couldn't breathe," Mazzulla said of the absence of Porzingis, who has dealt with the ongoing effects from an illness that sidelined him for a stretch of games late in the regular season. "And so, he was available, if absolutely necessary. And so that was just a decision between me and him. He was having just difficulty breathing, but he wanted to be out there."

The Celtics are looking to become only the 14th team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit in 294 attempts.

Josh Hart led the Knicks with 24 points despite briefly leaving the game late in the first quarter to close a bloody gash on his face after he took an inadvertent elbow.

Jalen Brunson scored 22 points before fouling out with 7:19 to play.

Boston trailed by nine points in the first half but closed the third quarter on a 23-9 run and took a 91-76 lead to the fourth. Brunson spent the final 2:45 of the third on the bench after picking up his fifth foul.

The Celtics kept it going in the final period, pushing their lead as high as 28 points.

The game was highly physical throughout and included a brief face-to-face skirmish between Hart and Brown.

That energy carried over on offense. The Celtics came out hot, getting five 3s from White and 12 total in the opening 24 minutes.

But the Knicks held as much as a nine-point lead, connecting on eight 3s of their own and getting 10 second-chance points. Mitchell Robinson also converted on all four of his free throw attempts in the first half, nullifying the series-long intentional foul strategy Boston used on him.

When the half ended, the score was knotted 59-59.

Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.