The Atlanta Hawks were defeated by the Boston Celtics 134-125 on Saturday night. This was always going to be a difficult spot for the Hawks – playing the number two team in the Eastern Conference on the second night of a back-to-back without one of their key bench contributors in Bogdan Bogdanovic. However, they did fight hard, and managed to stick around in this one despite the Celitcs having a +30 advantage in points from the perimeter*.
*Boston went 20/42 on three’s tonight compared to Atlanta’s 10-31 mark – a major difference between the two sides tonight
The first quarter was a party for both team’s offenses, with the Hawks shooting 66.7% from the field while Boston nailed 6 first-quarter three’s, but the Hawks led 38-37. Trae Young got whatever he wanted in the opening frame, racking up 10 points and 7 assists, and knocked down two three’s in the period. The beginning of the second quarter was where things went off the rails for the Hawks’, as Boston went on a 20-4 run over the first 6-minutes and 30-seconds. Despite Atlanta getting their act together over the back half of the quarter, they still trailed 71-61 heading into the break as they simply could not slow down Boston’s offense.
The Celtics held a 12-5 advantage in three-pointers in the first half, and held a commanding lead despite both team’s shooting similarly from the floor (Boston – 54.9 1H fg%, Atlanta – 53.2 1H fg%).
The third quarter was tight, with Atlanta managing to cut Boston’s lead to under 10 points on three separate occasions, yet the Celtics led 101-89 going into the fourth. After only taking one shot in the first half, Saddiq Bey poured in 8 points in the 3rd to keep Atlanta in the game. The fourth quarter got off to a good start for the home-team, with the Hawks going 8-11 from the field to cut the Celtic’s lead down to 5 with 5:37 left to play. However, as was the case for the entire game, Boston responded with a little run of their own (in this case, a Marcus Smart three followed by a Derrick White floater) to immediately put them back up by 10. The Hawks refused to quit though, and managed to get the lead back down to 6 with a chance to cut it to 3 or 4 with under a minute remaining. Unfortunately on their next possession, the Hawks missed 3-separate chances* to get the lead to under 5-points resulting in an easy transition slam for Malcolm Brogdon on the other end to put a bow on this one for the night.
Trae Young led the way for the Hawks tonight, racking up a first half double-double and finished with 35 points and 13 assists on 12-27 shooting (4-11 from three). Saddiq Bey finished with 17 points (all of which were scored in the second-half), and shot 6-9 from the field. De’Andre Hunter, who entered the game with a “questionable” injury designation, played 39 minutes and finished with 16 points. Dejounte Murray played 39 minutes as well though was quite offensively, finishing with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists on 7-18 shooting – though he did rack up 3 steals. Onyeka Okongwu had a great game, despite his numbers not jumping off of the page – finishing with a respectable 11 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists and a block in 22 minutes – however he was a team best +12 in those minutes, and did a nice job defending the pick-and-roll tonight.
For Boston, Jayson Tatum continued his reign of terror this season, dominating Atlanta to the tune of 34 points, 15 rebounds and 6 assists. Marrietta’s-own, Jaylen Brown, finished with 24 points, 7 assists, 5 boards and 2 steals. Derrick White and Malcolm Brogdon added 18 points each, going a combined 15-22 from the floor.
Despite the Hawks losing the game, there are still some silver linings to take away from this one. They scored 125 points, shot 50% from the floor, held a 70-62 edge in points-in-the-paint, and dominated the second-chance points battle (20-5 in favor of Atlanta), all on the second night of a back-to-back, so this was not a bad performance at all from the home-side, they just couldn’t keep pace with Boston’s perimeter shooting tonight. Per cleaningtheglass, Boston is 3rd in the league in three-point shooting frequency, Atlanta is 29th, it’s always going to be tough to beat them if they shoot 47% from three as they did tonight, a message reiterated by Quin Snyder in his post-game interview.
The Hawks next matchup is against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night from State Farm Arena. Each game grows in importance with the postseason on the horizon, and Monday night’s matchup is no different with both team’s jostling for playoff positioning.
Tipoff is at 7:30pm on Bally Sports.
