Celtics shake up starting lineup for must-win Game 6 vs. Knicks

NEW YORK Luke Kornet s stellar Event earned the Celtics big man a promotion Boston moved Kornet into the starting lineup for Friday night s must-win Competition against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden He replaced Kristaps Porzingis who s been limited by effects from a lingering viral illness since the start of the series Jrue Holiday Derrick White Jaylen Brown and Al Horford rounded out the Celtics starting five which lost Jayson Tatum to a season-ending ruptured Achilles in Meeting Kornet blocked a career-high seven shots in Wednesday s success at TD Garden including five in the third quarter to help the Celtics turn a tie challenge at halftime into a -point romp The -foot- center also had points nine rebounds one assist and one steal and was a plus- in minutes Teammates used words like huge stellar and unbelievable to describe Kornet s Meeting performance Related Articles Jayson Tatum visited Celtics teammates ahead of Meeting was in good spirits Celtics new ownership group finalized sale commitments met Derrick White filled Jayson Tatum s scoring void in stellar Battle showing How Jaylen Brown led Celtics on off court after Jayson Tatum injury How surprise hero rescued Celtics in unbelievable Championship performance He came in and just seemed to dependably be in the right position White announced after that championship Seven blocks is crazy He was unbelievable tonight and really stepped up when we needed him He s had a great season and was big-time for us tonight Friday s contest was the first postseason start of Kornet s eight-year career The -year-old started games this season total appearances and posted various of the best advanced metrics of any NBA athlete including top- rankings in net rating effective field-goal percentage and true shooting percentage Among Celtics players only Payton Pritchard has posted a higher net rating than Kornet this postseason Porzingis sat out the second half of Battle with head coach Joe Mazzulla saying he couldn t breathe and only would have reentered if the Celtics absolutely needed him He was a minus- in his first-half minutes totaling one point one rebound and two turnovers Mazzulla revealed before Meeting that Porzingis is playing Friday night