Celtics’ young stars remain confident in title chances following Game 5 loss

Celtics Jayson Tatum and the Celtics will have to win two more elimination games in order to win the title. Jim Davis/Globe Staff

Outside of a 35-point third quarter, the Celtics’ offense looked dead in the water in their 104-94 loss to the Warriors in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

Boston once again had trouble controlling the ball, committing 18 turnovers. It’s the seventh time they’ve committed 16 or more turnovers in a game this postseason, losing all seven times.

The Celtics also bookended the game with poor shooting quarters. They scored 16 points in the first quarter on 7-of-22 shooting. For the second straight game, they had a poor shooting performance in the fourth quarter. They scored just five points in the first eight-plus minutes of the fourth before scoring 20 points on 4-of-15 shooting for the period.

The Celtics’ two stars were each responsible for the poor stretch. Jayson Tatum, who actually had his best shooting performance of the series on Monday by scoring 27 points on 50 percent shooting, scored just five points on 1-of-5 shooting, air balling a couple of shots, and missed back-to-back free-throws. Jaylen Brown scored five points on 1-of-5 shooting while committing two turnovers. He ended up having a poor night, scoring 18 points on 5-of-18 shooting with a game-high five turnovers.

The stars’ coach, Ime Udoka, didn’t reject the idea that the two could be fatigued, resulting in poor play down the stretch.

Brown, who along with Tatum played all but the final minute of the second half in Game 5, didn’t want to use fatigue as an excuse for his performance on Monday night.

“I wanted to be on the floor. Ime trusted me to be out there,” Udoka said. “Over the course of the game, we made some good plays. We were in it. I felt like we just couldn’t get over the hump tonight.”

Tatum admitted that he felt tired in the fourth quarter, but he also believed he could’ve played better.

“I had a couple shots that were short,” Tatum said. “I just got to not fade as much. Use my legs. I mean, you’re going to be a little more tired in the fourth than you are in the first quarter.

“You got to get your legs a little more under you on a couple of those shots. Give yourself a chance.

Part of the reason why the Celtics might have felt tired in the fourth quarter was due to the hole they put themselves in to start. As the Celtics missed shots and turned the ball over, the Warriors got off to a 24-8 lead at one point in the first quarter – which was later negated by the Celtics’ run in the third quarter that gave them the lead.

Golden State looked far more energetic than Boston in the opening minutes of Game 5, and that’s one thing Tatum and Brown know can’t happen.

“Yeah, that’s on us. We got to obviously start better, not dig ourselves a hole,” Tatum said. “[We] gave ourselves a chance. We played extremely well in that third quarter. We were up six or seven at one point.

“Then just trying to sustain that level of play. We got to do it more often than not throughout the course of the game to give ourselves a chance.”

“I don’t know how to answer that question,” Brown added when asked about the slow start. “We come out each and every night and try to do the best job we possibly can. Like I said, credit to Golden State. They came out with great energy and made it tough for us. I felt like we had some good looks, but it didn’t go our way tonight.”

Monday’s loss marked the first time the Celtics lost two straight games all postseason. It was also the first time the Celtics lost back-to-back games in which Tatum and Brown played in both games since January, prior to their tear that led them to title contention.

Despite losing Games 4 and 5 in a similar fashion, Brown’s “faith is higher than it’s ever been before.”

“I ain’t got no choice. We don’t have no choice. It’s win or go home at this point,” Brown said. “We worked incredibly hard all season to put ourselves in this position. I still feel like we have so much more better basketball to play that we haven’t played in the last two games.

“I’m hoping that the next two games we play Celtic basketball and put our best foot forward like I know we can. I know the city is going to be behind us. It’s going to be a big Game 6. Looking forward to it.”

Tatum’s keeping his focus on one game at a time.

“You know, I’ve said it before: You better be confident, right? We ain’t got to win two in one day,” Tatum said. “We just got to win one game on Thursday. We’ve been in this situation before. So it’s not over. Got to win on Thursday. That’s all we got to worry about right now.”

Thursday’s Game 6 marks the fourth elimination game the Celtics will play in this postseason. They played two of them against the Bucks after going down 3-2 in that series. They also had to win Game 7 in Miami to beat the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.

Now, they must beat twice in a row that’s broken their trends – and a team that’s looking to win their fourth title in eight seasons.

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