The Boston Celtics marched into State Farm Arena and blew out the Atlanta Hawks, 126-10, to claim their eight straight victory. Atlanta got behind the eight-ball early, shooting an anemic-31% from the field in the opening quarter and missing a plethora of open looks.
The Hawks, most notably De’Andre Hunter, had Boston star Jayson Tatum searching for answers in the first, holding him to just two points on 1-7 from the field. However, the Celtics’ supporting cast devastated the Hawks from three, and this was the difference-maker in the game.
Trae Young got off to a sluggish start, scoring only three points in the opening frame as the Celtics took a 30-18 lead into the second quarter. While the Hawks entered the second quarter 0-7 from three-point range, they kept the game manageable hung around a nine-point deficit. But, Boston knocked down a whopping 12 three’s in the first half. That was the theme all night as Celtics’ shooters like Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard and Grant Williams, combined to hit 13-19 from three.
Dejounte Murray and Hunter both had ten points in the first half to help the Hawks keep the game within reach. However, just as the halftime buzzer sounded, Pritchard hit a back-breaking 29-foot three to send both teams to their locker rooms with the Celtics leading 62-53.
Coming out of the half, the Hawks cut the deficit to four points, and it looked like momentum was shifting in favor of the home team. Young did play better in the second half, but it would not be enough, as Boston continued to rain down three’s. This included a 9-0 run to balloon the lead to 97-78.
Young finished with 27 points, nine assists and five rebounds, shooting 10-23 from the field. Murray finished with 19 points and five assists, and Hunter added 13 but failed to score in the second half. John Collins threw down an emphatic alley-oop over Celtics center, Luke Kornet, but continued to struggle
from three-point land, going 0-3, to finish with 12 points.
Boston destroyed the Hawks from downtown, shooting 21-46 for 45.7%. Williams chipped in 18
points, Pritchard with 14 and Hauser with 15, and each player all made at least four three’s on over 50% shooting. Georgia-native, Jaylen Brown, led the Celtics’ charge with 22 points and five rebounds. Derrick
White started for the injured Marcus Smart and sliced through the Hawks’ defense for 16 points,
10 assists and five rebounds. Kornet was highly efficient with 15 points on 7-7 shooting. Hunter
held Tatum to 19 points on just 6-19 shooting, but Brown and the Celtics’ role players picked up
the slack for their all-star small forward.
The three-point shooting difference was astonishing as the Hawks only mustered seven
threes on 32 attempts. This has been a consistent issue for the Hawks since the season’s opening.
Atlanta needs to start converting on threes, especially in today’s NBA when three-point success
is more important than ever. The Hawks’ next opportunity to bounce back comes Saturday at
State Farm Arena as they do battle with the Toronto Raptors.
