Relax. Take a deep breath.
Kemba Walker, with the Celtics’ season on the edge at halftime Friday night, did not ask for more energy from his teammates. He implored them to channel the same energy differently. He wanted them to control their energy better than they did during the first half.
“What I remember of halftime,” said Jaylen Brown, “is Kemba saying we just need to settle down a little bit.”
The speech may not go down in the annals of Celtics basketball. It won’t even displace the Game 2 argument as the most memorable locker-room moment of the Eastern Conference Finals. But with his team trailing Game 5, 58-51, and in need of a comeback to salvage the season, Walker delivered a necessary message. The Celtics couldn’t win the entire series in one possession, as they seemed to attempt too many times during the first half.
“We all felt the intensity that we all had in the beginning,” Brown…
