PLAYOFFS 2023 POST GAME ATLANTA HAWKS - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Takes Commanding 3-1 Series Lead Over Hawks
The C's need just one more

NESN by Gio Rivera

The Boston Celtics responded in Game 4, defeating the Atlanta Hawks, 129-121, at State Farm Arena on Sunday night.

The Celtics take a 3-1 series lead over the Hawks.

Check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
A road win is a road win.

While the Celtics still haven’t shown the same firepower or ability to exploit the game that separated themselves from Atlanta in the regular season, that wasn’t priority No. 1. Boston needed to be the first team in this series to earn a road win and they did, although as the Hawks have done for now three consecutive games, they didn’t make it easy.

Boston knew a major deal of emphasis would need to be applied in order to walk out of Atlanta with a victory, and necessary improvements were made. The C’s held the Hawks to just 16 second-chance points and their bench to 21 points — two major killers that haunted Boston all throughout Game 3.

The offensive star power wasn’t in place to create any sort of significant separation, nevertheless, the Celtics adapted and found a way when it mattered. Joe Mazzulla didn’t get a series MVP-caliber night out of his usual primary contributors Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown, but as opposed to allowing the Hawks to find a big-time game-clincher, they deferred to some nifty playmaking in order to apply pressure in crunch time.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Jayson Tatum led the C’s, scoring with 31 points while shooting 8-of-20 from the field with seven rebounds and four assists. In the fourth quarter, Tatum also knocked down a huge gut-punching 3-pointer to extend Boston’s lead to 12 points with 2:05 minutes left. He also made a difference on the defensive end, blocking three Hawks shot attempts.

— Hawks star Trae Young finished with a game-leading 35 points while also recording 14 assists to seize a double-double.

— Jaylen Brown matched Tatum’s 31 points, shooting 12-of-22 from the field while grabbing four rebounds and dishing out four assists.

WAGER WATCH
FanDuel Sportsbook set the over/under on Al Horford’s rebound total at 5.5 with -140 odds on the Over. Horford cleared those odds early, recording six by halftime. A $100 wager placed on the 36-year-old would’ve resulted in a $171.43 total payout.

UP NEXT
The Celtics, now a victory shy of advancing, will host the Hawks on Tuesday night in Game 5. Tipoff from TD Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

This is a great formula for us RWill with a monster 13-15 double double. 2 J’s with just over 30 each and making play after play down the stretch, Smart Brogdon and White all in double figures with 19 14 and 18. Jaylen with some great bullyball drives/dunks, Tatum with some huge shots and getting to the line down the stretch. Hawks played their heart out again, scoring 34 points in 3rd and 4th quarter, despite great defense by us. Tatum had 3 key blocked shots, Brown shut down his man at key times in 4th and we hit big shot after big shot, alot on great movement and penetration getting RWill some easy finishes. Love the way we played, this is the winning formula.

Great hard fought spirited game. Joe very efficient with his time outs, lead went down to 5 and 6 a few times and we reacted perfectly everytime, building it back to 9 then 12, that’s on Joe.

Hi,
It's a solid win. Celtics led ATL almost the whole game, kept them at distance.
I hope they'll finish it on Tue.

AK

The Js were 8-22 at the half. They ended up 20-42, a 12-20 2nd half. Coming through when we needed it.

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
yesterday
When Jayson Tatum saw Jaylen Brown take off the mask, he says that he looked at Marcus Smart and said, "Oh, it’s go time now.”


Great play by RWill. 13 points, 15 rebounds, 2 assists. When he plays like this, and can play for 29 minutes without a problem (I should check to see how his knees are today before I say this) we are VERY tough.

Abby Chin @tvabby
yesterday
Rob Williams in some pretty good company — Celtics with 15+ reb, 2+ stl, 2+ blk in a playoff game: Cowens 2x, Bird 2x, McHale, Parish, KG and Rob tonight. h/t Dick Lipe




Derrick! Derrick! Derrick!


Trae Young with 35 points on 11-26, 4-10 from 3, 15 assists and only 1 turnover, 2 steals. That is about as good as you can ask for from him. Hunter with 27 pm 11-17 and 3-6 from 3. Murray with 23 on on 9-20 and 4-8 from 3. And they still lost, convincingly. This series is over, barring an injury or a fluke. John Collins was 1-9, 1-5 from 3. WTF is a 7'er doing that far from the basket for over half his shots? I hate this NBA, I mean, c'mon.



https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401541188


Bob


.

Definitely our most complete game of the series so far. Our defense and rebounding was solid the whole game. Give the Hawks credit, they fought us hard. Young and Murray are tough covers. Our offense was also very efficient. Gotta love Jaylen bully balling the Hawks in the second half. He was tremendous. JT was great also, he played great defense and rebounded the ball and blocked some shots. He played an all around game, that is the mark of a true superstar.

In all likelihood Murray is suspended for Game 5 (what a bonehead). We can't take this next game lightly. Need the same effort and get the "gentleman's sweep".

RWIII continues to show his value to the Celtics, and the value of the big man to a basketball team in general.

Without the big guy roaming the baseline, playing low in the paint, that could have very realistically been a Celtics loss last night. Key scoring, defense and rebounding from RWIII made the difference.

It's still basketball. Fewer teams can assemble a championship level roster without at least one key big, and RWIII shows why if he's healthy and in the game, Boston's title hopes are alive and well.

In addition to my opinion, here's one of the stories on RWIII in circulation this morning that offers similar thoughts:
Robert Williams' Game 4 is proof that he changes Celtics' ceiling when healthy
https://sports.yahoo.com/robert-williams-game-4-proof-133500221.html?src=rss

IMO, this game was the best coached game to date by CJ.  He did not allow the game to go sideways because he called timeouts repeatedly so that he could reinforce what his team needed to stay focused on.  I saw great coaching!, great decision making and great instincts from him.  

CJ also made a significant decision with respect to playing our 2 big lineups more.  It seemed obvious to me that the Celtics really needed to address the rebounding disparity and RW was the one guy who could do that for the team.  He played 29 minutes and was a source of great energy and intense play that was absent in their game 3 loss.  His 13 point, 15 rebound outing along with the blocks, steals, assists and game saving hustle plays should remind every one of us that  he may be the barometer for our success.

I was not sure how Marcus Smart would perform after taking that game 3 tumble.  What we got was what we needed, a Marcus Smart who was fully engaged in running the team, a coach on the floor and an absolute warrior that took every challenge and won most every skirmish.  

This was a team win with contributions coming from D White and Malcolm Brogdon.  AH did not score but his presence was felt on the glass (11 rebounds with 3 on the offensive glass) and with his passing (5 assists)

This was a signature win by the Celtics.  Along with really impressive performances from the team, our two elite level players had elite level games.  Jayson and Jaylen matched one another's scoring output with 31 points each.   I was in awe about what they did together in the 4th quarter with the game on the line and a determined Hawks team that never stopped fighting.

Jayson scored 16 points in the 4th and Jaylen scored 12.  

The Celtics are now one win away from making the Philly connection.

BingBang! wrote:It was the team’s, including the coach’s, 60th win of the season. Finally catching up? I too don’t like the no time out strategy that coach appears to have thankfully abandoned. But instead of citing my self as an authority I look at the landscape and reckon that since nobody else copied the no time out strategy and I don’t recall it ever being used - and it didn’t seem to work well - it must have been a failed strategy. This in some respect is where the press is failing the fans by not asking coach about the strategy - it’s puts and takes, was there a lesson he was trying to imbue even at the risk of dropping a game or two? if so was it worth it? or was it just a bad idea?

BingBang

On several occasions during the regular season in post game pressers, the media has asked him about calling timeouts.

There have been numerous discussions on this forum about CJ not taking timeouts to impact the game results. As it turns out, CJ did in fact need to take more control of the game in certain circumstances. What we have seen from him now is the result of a maturation process that has greatly enhanced his teams' prospects to win games.

Very nice win. Playoff basketball. Both teams competed. The Celts asserted their superiority and will and and brought this one home. Time to close out the series.

It was really good to see Jaylen get going. Hopefully there are no setbacks with the hand.