BOSTON — Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid reveled from home in a wretched Celtics loss, as the Atlanta Hawks’ 119-117 win in Game 5 on Tuesday afforded his right knee sprain two more days of rest.
Inside Boston’s locker room, Marcus Smart could not find the exit fast enough. Jayson Tatum, the No. 2 seed’s superstar answer to Embiid, sat dejected, his knees wrapped in ice, a hand covering his face while he stared blankly at his phone, long after the rest of his teammates had showered, dressed and filtered out.
In the hallways of TD Garden, Celtics executives, staffers and family members were stunned by the defeat, angry even, because they all understood the reverberations of failing to close out their first-round series.
“Gave them life and s***,” one said.
“Now they’ve got to go back to Atlanta,” said another.
“I’m not going with them.”
This is what Atlanta’s Trae Young does to opponents. For all his foibles, the diminutive point guard shoots for their heart, and when he connects, he basks in their suffering. And, man, did he connect on a 30-footer over Jaylen Brown with 2.8 seconds remaining. Young’s fifth trey of the night erased Derrick White’s go-ahead free throws moments earlier and pulled his seventh-seeded Hawks within 3-2 in this best of seven.
The 3-pointer came 47 minutes and 47 seconds after the first of Young’s game-high 38 points — naturally another triple off the opening tip. In between, he played 44 minutes, including the entire second half in the absence of suspended backcourt mate Dejounte Murray, and Atlanta trailed for the vast majority of them.
The Celtics led by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter and 111-99 with 5:24 left on the clock — and presumably in the series. Young 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, quieting the last of the Boston crowd’s “overrated” chants.
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“When people do that, I think that’s just total respect,” said Young, who struggled mightily during the first…
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