Freshly anointed as the highest seed within the Japanese Convention, the Boston Celtics’ celebrations had been dampened on Monday night time towards the Atlanta Hawks. Having led by as many as 30 factors within the second quarter, the Celtics suffered a staggering collapse within the third quarter to offer the lead away, and located themselves outplayed in crunch time to lose an absolute stunner of a sport, 120-118.
Jayson Tatum led the shorthanded Celtics, enjoying because the nominal level guard and scoring 37 factors. Jaylen Brown added 24 of his personal, however struggled with effectivity, however struggled together with his effectivity for a lot of the night time. Rounding out the offensive focal factors had been Kristaps Porzingis and Payton Pritchard, who mixed for 32. For the Hawks, a balanced scoring assault noticed all 5 starters — Dejounte Murray, Vit Krejci, Bogdan Bogdanovic, DeAndre Hunter and Clint Capela — document double-digit scoring nights, with Bruno Fernando including 13 off the bench.
The Celtics have been no strangers to enjoying shorthanded this season, however tonight’s sport supplied a very distinctive problem. Absent Jrue Vacation (lifeless arm) and reigning Japanese Convention Participant of the Week Derrick White (hand sprain), coach Joe Mazzulla opted to play a beginning lineup with no nominal guards. Al Horford and Sam Hauser drew the beginning as a substitute, with Tatum and Brown working as offensive initiators, countering a Hawks beginning lineup that every one stood at the least 6-foot-5. The unorthodox lineup produced outcomes from the beginning — Tatum (14), Brown (13) and Porzingis (10) posted double-digit scoring within the first quarter, and the Celtics opened up a 44-22 lead heading into the second.
The onslaught continued into the second body. Tatum cracked the 20-point threshold earlier than the halfway level of the quarter, and the staff purchased itself a 30-point lead within the course of. The Hawks didn’t shoot notably poorly — they only discovered themselves buried underneath an avalanche of scoring from the Celtics offense. Nevertheless, future troubles had been foreshadowed within the closing minutes, because the Hawks managed a run late within the half to deliver themselves someplace near hanging distance. The lead at halftime was 74-56.
The beginning of the second half marked a stark reversal within the groups’ fortunes. The Hawks outscored the Celtics 19-4 within the opening minutes of the quarter, bringing the State Farm Enviornment crowd to life as they stormed all the way in which again to inside three factors of a lead — a fully beautiful turnaround.
No matter Mazzulla stated within the inevitable ensuing timeout appeared to work. The Celtics returned to the court docket and instantly laid down a affected person, methodical 8-0 run to yank the Hawks’ momentum out from beneath them. Atlanta’s unlikely hero responded; Krejci recorded a private 5-0 to as soon as once more draw the Hawks inside single digits. This wasn’t the beginning of one other huge Hawks run, because the Celtics fended them off by means of the tip of the quarter, however the injury was completed. The Celtics entered the fourth quarter hanging onto a 96-90 lead, with a troublesome battle between them and the end line.
It didn’t take lengthy for the Hawks to completely full the comeback. Atlanta opened the ultimate quarter with a 7-0 run within the first two minutes, shortly taking the lead over the Celtics for the primary time in your complete sport on a three-pointer from Wes Matthews. Svi Mykhailiuk responded with a three-pointer of his personal, however the Hawks shortly put themselves again on prime. A 15-5 begin to the quarter for Atlanta — aided by a horrible eight-second penalty from Tatum — purchased them an inconceivable four-point lead with eight minutes remaining in regulation.
The groups remained comparatively twisted up throughout the subsequent couple of minutes. Boston strung collectively a number of well timed buckets — together with a shock look from younger guard Jaden Springer — and drew even with Atlanta at 107 apiece with just below six minutes remaining. After a Hawks timeout and a pair of missed free throws from Murray, the Celtics regained the lead behind a midrange jumper from Brown.
The defenses started to claim themselves because the clock ticked down, which favored the Celtics and their opportunistic unit. They started to close the water off on the Hawks’ offense, and inched forward by 4 factors after a goaltending name towards Capela with simply over three minutes remaining. Nevertheless, Hawks coach Quin Snyder challenged the decision, and upon evaluation, the block was dominated clear, taking the 2 Celtic factors again off the board.
As the sport entered crunch time, the groups traded free throws on both facet of a Tatum midrange jumper to maintain the rating steady. Capela missed a possible game-tying dunk because the clock ticked underneath two minutes remaining, however after an empty journey from the Celtics, Bogdanovic discovered paydirt on a pull-up three to push Atlanta forward by one. It was a shot that broke the sport open for the Hawks — they launched into a 7-2 run over the subsequent minute of play to place themselves forward 120-116 with 9 seconds remaining, placing the sport on ice.
Subsequent up, the Celtics are staying proper the place they’re — they return to the ground at State Farm Enviornment in Atlanta for a rematch with the Hawks this Thursday at 7:30 PM EST on NBC Sports activities Boston.
