PLAYOFFS 2023 - POST GAME ATALANTA HAWKS - HOME

Celtics Wrap: Boston Throttles Hawks To Take Game 1
The Celtics led by 30 points at halftime


NESN by Greg Dudek

BOSTON — The Celtics opened up the playoffs in dominating fashion, routing the Atlanta Hawks, 112-99, on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden.

With the win, the Celtics hold a 1-0 series lead in their first-round matchup with the Hawks.


ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
It’s very seldom that expectations meet reality. But that was case in Game 1.

The seventh-seeded Hawks weren’t expected to give the No. 2 Celtics much resistance and Boston made it look easy as they annihilated Atlanta to go up in the series.

Boston picked apart the Hawks’ defense time and time again to run away with things early. The Celtics outscored Atlanta, 45-25, in the second quarter to open a 30-point lead (74-44) by halftime. It tied the largest postseason halftime lead for the Celtics in franchise history, according to ESPN Stats and Info.

The Celtics got whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Even though they are a 3-point shooting team, the Celtics got into the paint with ease, which then led to open shots from beyond the arc. And it wasn’t just the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown show as the Celtics had a multitude of contributors.

The Hawks couldn’t get much going on the other end either as the Celtics swallowed up Trae Young while the Hawks shot a putrid 5-for-29 (17.2%) from 3-point range.

If Boston can replicate this showing, they’ll quickly be moving on to the next round of the playoffs.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Jaylen Brown didn’t seem bothered one bit by his hand ailment after he had stitches removed from the area Thursday. The Celtics star totaled a game-high 29 points while recording 12 rebounds for a double-double.

— Robert Williams gave the Celtics the initial spark they needed by making an impact on both ends of the floor. Williams turned in arguably his best performance of the season with 12 points on a perfect 6-for-6 shooting to go along with eight rebounds, two assists and one highlight-reel block.

— Derrick White turned in a sensational effort by hitting 4-of-7 3-pointers to finish with 24 points. White also registered seven assists, five rebounds and two blocks.

WAGER WATCH
Rebounding was a key for the Celtics heading into the matchup, and FanDuel Sportsbook set Al Horford’s over/under for rebounds at 5.5 with -132 odds on the Over. Horford tallied nine rebounds to hit the Over, meaning a $100 bet would have netted a total of $175.76.

UP NEXT
The Celtics and Hawks resume their best-of-seven series on Tuesday. Tipoff for Game 2 from TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.

Jaylen talking now, he went to the locker room, finger split open a little and he had to get it rewrapped. Will check to see if stitches need to be done tomorrow. It definitely bothered him, 6 turnovers

A 30 point lead down to 13.  Joe only went 8 deep despite that.  Every starter played no less than 32 minutes (Smart) and one played 40 (Tatum).  Quinn Snyder had two starters under 30, one at 30 and two @ 35 and 36.  He went 9 deep.  I realize benches get shortened in the playoffs but only playing 8 in the first game of the first round sounds a bit aggressive.  

They shot 5-29 from 3, their starting back court was a combined 1-11.  I wouldn't count on that happening again.

They shot 39% on the game and we shot 48%, we outrebounded them by 13.  So why was it a 13 point win, shouldn't it have been more than that with the numbers that lopsided?  The reason is because we had 16 turnovers vs 11 for them and they had 13 steals vs 6 for us.  That's 12 more possessions for them and steals are live turnovers.  Jaylen with 6 of those 16 turnovers.  Atlanta is one of the worst defensive teams in the league (26th out of 30).  There's no way they should have that many steals against us.  

He also had 29 points on 12-23 and 12 rebounds, so he didn't stink up the joint, but his sloppiness hurt us.

Cameron Tabatabaie @CTabatabaie
2 minutes ago
Tatum on defensive end: We were locked in on the beginning, came out with a sense of purpose

He was 9-15 at halftime, ended up 10-23.  That means his 2nd half was 1-8.  He was locked in from the beginning, it was from the middle on he let down.  They all did.  We were up 30, they cut it to 12.  How is that "locked in"?


Cameron Tabatabaie @CTabatabaie
about 12 minutes ago
Derrick White: You get up 30 and you relax a little bit, whether it’s the playoffs or not. We know we gotta get better at that.


That was true of the Celtics in general but Derrick had a great game vs Trae Young.  Young had 16 on 5-14, 1-5 from 3, 8 assists and 5 turnovers.  White had 24 on 7-13, 4-7 from 3, 7 assists and only 2 turnovers.  He also had 2 blocks.  The Hawks need Trae Young to play well to stand any chance at all against us.  We don't need Derrick White to play great to win, so when he outplays Young that is a HUGE bonus.

Credit to our defense, especially Smart and White.  Atlanta has the #3 offense in the league @ 118.1ppg and we only gave up 99.

I know it sounds like I'm being overly critical, but we had the 2nd best win/loss record in the league and Atlanta is supposed to be the easiest series we're going to have.  If you go up 30 you should win by 20 at least, but we only scored 38 points in the 2nd half.  We've seen this all year, we take our foot off the gas pedal.  Hey Joe!  How about putting some of our hungry bench in?  All they want to do is stand on the accelerator.

Unfortunately, we may have let the Hawks players believe they can play against us.  If we had crushed them, totally, we'd be looking at a sweep almost guaranteed.  Now?  Maybe not.  They now know they can knock 17 points off of a lead against us.

And then there's this:




https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401540751


Bob


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Bob I think alot of the turnovers were him getting used to intense live action and dealing with his hand/stitches. Hopefully it won’t effect us too bad going forward. Basketball is a game of runs, we obviously overwhelmed them in the first half. Great defense by us leading to offense early, looked like we couldn’t keep up the same intensity in the second half. I would have given GWill and Griffin a few minutes as they can make hustle plays and even hit a couple of 3’s. Brogdon will have a bounce back game. Tatum got off early, cooled a little in 2nd half. White was spectacular and Jaylen gave us some big plays when we needed it in 2nd half.

Gripping the ball must have caused Jaylen issues. I really hope he won’t need to have more stitches in, but it would not surprise me if he did. Glass cuts are very hard to heal, I know I have had a few. He still got 29 points and some at crucial points in the game.

Celts don't play again til Tuesday. Eight man rotation was fine. Deep bench might have gotten some action if huge lead had held up. When should Mazzula have experimented with other combinations? It was down to a 12 point lead with 9 minutes to go.I can just hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth if JM had put in the scrubs and they blew the game. He called a timeout (as everybody is always demanding) when it got down to 12 and the guys who were playing already kicked it back up to 18. One of our advantages against the Hawks is backcourt size: so the coach should have put in the 6 foot one guy to even things up? Mazzulla gets the treatment on here that Derrick White did last year, when so many opined that we had given up too much to get him. Short memories.I know this post won't win me any popularity contests, but ces la vie.

Hi,
Ugly win. But win is a win is a win.
I hope this 20 points "relaxation" (drop from 32 points lead to 12) will be lesson learnt.
JB is hurt - you could see it by his driving and mid-range jumpers. I wonder if he should sit the second game out - let the cuts to heal.
All in all, 1 down, 15 to go.

AK

jrleftfoot wrote:Celts don't play again til Tuesday. Eight man rotation was fine. Deep bench might have gotten some action if huge lead had held up. When should Mazzula have experimented with other combinations? It was down to a 12 point lead with 9 minutes to go.I can just hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth if JM had put in the scrubs and they blew the game. He called a timeout  (as everybody is always demanding) when it got down to 12 and the guys who were playing already kicked it back up to 18. One of our advantages against the Hawks is backcourt size: so the coach should have put in the 6 foot one guy to even things up? Mazzulla gets the treatment on here that Derrick White did last year, when so many opined that we had given up too much to get him. Short memories.I know this post won't win me any popularity contests, but ces la vie.

Agreed in a 12 point game, you should stick with the starters or top 7-8, when it got to 26-30 earlier, he could have given GWill or Blake a little run….those 2 guys can play physical and contribute IMHO

Certainly a solid win, but letting them chip away in the second half made our starters play more minutes. Tatum played 40 minutes, Jaylen 39 and Al 38. I was hoping to keep the lead above 20 and get Grant and Prit in there. However, with two days off now and having a week off before the playoffs not really a big deal. I actually thought we were a little rusty in the first quarter.

No doubt Jaylen was a little hampered by his hand, but he still played a great game. Hopefully, the training staff can find a way to effectively protect the cut and still allow him to play without limitation. Game 2 should be interesting. I think the Hawks will be better, but I think we will play a consistent 48 minutes.

jrleftfoot wrote:Celts don't play again til Tuesday. Eight man rotation was fine. Deep bench might have gotten some action if huge lead had held up. When should Mazzula have experimented with other combinations? It was down to a 12 point lead with 9 minutes to go.I can just hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth if JM had put in the scrubs and they blew the game. He called a timeout  (as everybody is always demanding) when it got down to 12 and the guys who were playing already kicked it back up to 18. One of our advantages against the Hawks is backcourt size: so the coach should have put in the 6 foot one guy to even things up? Mazzulla gets the treatment on here that Derrick White did last year, when so many opined that we had given up too much to get him. Short memories.I know this post won't win me any popularity contests, but ces la vie.

Agree on all points.

Playoff rotations are tight for good reason. The bench is for emergencies and late in the losing side of blowouts. The last thing you do is go away from your core rotation when your lead is shrinking. As the Hawks demonstrated, you also stay with the starters when it’s early enough for a shot at closing the gap or to look for weakness to take advantage of next game.

The Hawks of the past few weeks are not the same team everyone knew as a doormat. They can’t be taken lightly. Mazzulla was rightly disgusted with his teams lack of intensity or focus following the third quarter.

Conventional wisdom says the playoff rotation gets shorter.

However when the grill cooled down midway through the BBQ,  MAYBE you put PP in just to get it fired up again.

I heard that Jaylen's cut opened up a little during the game. Hopefully it doesn't require any more stitches to close it back up. IMO, he gets a one-half off discount for any turnovers he got, seeing how he played through the pain and contributed to a playoff win in other ways.

The best thing the Cs can do is get this round over in 4 games so Jaylen's cut gets some rest.

I heard on the pre-game that the 26ers win was not as close as the final score indicated. It stands to reason that the Celtics win was the same.

cowens/oldschool wrote:

jrleftfoot wrote:Celts don't play again til Tuesday. Eight man rotation was fine. Deep bench might have gotten some action if huge lead had held up. When should Mazzula have experimented with other combinations? It was down to a 12 point lead with 9 minutes to go.I can just hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth if JM had put in the scrubs and they blew the game. He called a timeout  (as everybody is always demanding) when it got down to 12 and the guys who were playing already kicked it back up to 18. One of our advantages against the Hawks is backcourt size: so the coach should have put in the 6 foot one guy to even things up? Mazzulla gets the treatment on here that Derrick White did last year, when so many opined that we had given up too much to get him. Short memories.I know this post won't win me any popularity contests, but ces la vie.

Agreed in a 12 point game, you should stick with the starters or top 7-8, when it got to 26-30 earlier, he could have given GWill or Blake a little run….those 2 guys can play physical and contribute IMHO

It looks like Coach Joe Mazzulla is going to keep both of those arrows in his quiver to be used later on against the 26ers and the Bucks.

Five observations from Hawks’ loss to the Celtics


By Lauren Williams, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution


BOSTON — After using physical play to get into the Eastern Conference playoffs, the Hawks struggled to channel that style Saturday, and they lost to the Celtics 112-99 in Game 1 of their series.

Here are five observations.

1. A Hawks matchup against one of the top-ranked offenses in the NBA would not be easy, and the disparity showed. The Hawks trailed by as many as 32 points, but they did fight back in the second half, outscoring the Celtics 55-38 to cut the deficit to 12.

The Hawks played a little more aggressively in the second half. Coming out of the locker room at halftime, the Hawks scored six consecutive points. Despite the Celtics answering those points, the Hawks went on a 26-9 run that lasted just over seven minutes before Boston regained control.

But some continued stops, and some nice plays by Dejounte Murray, which included two assists to Clint Capela, allowed the Hawks to cut the deficit to 12, at 107-95. That was the Hawks’ smallest deficit since they trailed 32-24 with 10 minutes to play in the second quarter.

They could not get over the hump, though.

“I think for our guys to understand that there’s two halves, there’s four quarters, and there’s seven games,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “And, I have said it before, the mental toughness that’s required to win a series in this league is significant. And we have to continue to demonstrate that, and I thought we did tonight. I thought we were a tough team to be down like we were and going to continue to play. That’s hard to do. And that’s what we did.”


2. The Hawks outmuscled the Heat early Tuesday to get them off their spots, and keep them out of the paint. But Saturday against the Celtics, the Hawks put up little resistance as the Celtics marched their way inside, possession after possession.

Part of the Hawks’ game plan early was to try to limit the amount of catch-and-shoot 3′s they gave up to one of the top shooting teams in the league. While they held the Celtics to 2-of-8 3-point shooting early, it seemed to have little effect.

The Celtics sliced them up with backdoor cuts and drives before their 3-point shooting caught fire. A number of those cuts came from Robert Williams, who scored 12 points off the bench.

“I mean, we came out that first half, and I don’t think we was really ready,” said Murray, who scored 24 points, had eight rebounds and six assists. “Just that ‘compete’ word, you know. I don’t think we was really competing, really locked in, like we been practicing, like we should have been.”


3. With 8:58 in the second quarter, Marcus Smart drained a 3, and Jaylen Brown, who had 29 points, made another 20 seconds later to balloon the lead to 17. The Celtics warmed as they made all but one of their 3-point attempts in the second quarter to stretch their lead to 30.

Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, scored 21 of his 25 points in the first half, knocked down the 3-pointer that sent Boston up 30.

The Celtics have plenty of options who can make shots when needed. In the regular season, the Celtics made 37.7% of their 3-point shots, which was good for sixth in the NBA. On Saturday, five Celtics starters ended the day with multiple 3′s, and all but one of their starters in double-digit scoring.


4. Ahead of the game, the Hawks knew that they would have to make their open shots to keep pace with the Celtics. But Saturday, they made only five 3-point shots and shot at a 17.2% clip (5-of-29). The team managed to generate several good looks throughout the afternoon, but the ball would roll halfway down the net before popping back out.

Unlike when the Hawks played the Heat on Tuesday, the Celtics quickly boxed them out early and stifled any shot at an offensive rebound.


5. The Celtics have a lot of depth on their roster, with plenty of guys who can play and have played starter-level minutes. Unfortunately, the Hawks second unit got out to a slower start than usual, and the Celtics’ second unit pounced.

The game hung within single-digits through for the first 14 minutes of the matchup. But the Celtics bench outscored the Hawks 13-6 and helped jump-start Boston’s run.

Moving forward, the Hawks will look for their bench to be ready out of the gate.


Stat to know

The Celtics led the Hawks 74-44 at halftime, tying Boston’s largest postseason halftime lead in franchise history.

Quotable

“Guys just more aggressive. We got stops on the defensive end, and that helps in our transition and gives us some easy baskets.” – Hawks guard Trae Young on what worked in the second half.

Up next

The Hawks face the Celtics in Boston at 7 p.m. Tuesday for Game 2 of their series.


Bob


.

Jay King
@ByJayKing
This fake was fun. In mid-air, White looked like he was about to pass, but lost Capela by holstering it and spinning. Created a wide open layup.

https://twitter.com/ByJayKing/status/1647630599111278592


Bob

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NYCelt wrote:

jrleftfoot wrote:Celts don't play again til Tuesday. Eight man rotation was fine. Deep bench might have gotten some action if huge lead had held up. When should Mazzula have experimented with other combinations? It was down to a 12 point lead with 9 minutes to go.I can just hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth if JM had put in the scrubs and they blew the game. He called a timeout  (as everybody is always demanding) when it got down to 12 and the guys who were playing already kicked it back up to 18. One of our advantages against the Hawks is backcourt size: so the coach should have put in the 6 foot one guy to even things up? Mazzulla gets the treatment on here that Derrick White did last year, when so many opined that we had given up too much to get him. Short memories.I know this post won't win me any popularity contests, but ces la vie.

Agree on all points.

Playoff rotations are tight for good reason. The bench is for emergencies and late in the losing side of blowouts. The last thing you do is go away from your core rotation when your lead is shrinking. As the Hawks demonstrated, you also stay with the starters when it’s early enough for a shot at closing the gap or to look for weakness to take advantage of next game.

The Hawks of the past few weeks are not the same team everyone knew as a doormat. They can’t be taken lightly. Mazzulla was rightly disgusted with his teams lack of intensity or focus following the third quarter.

That all may be true, but Hawks actually cut into our lead best with Trae Young on the bench, made their defense better to have Murray and a bigger wing in there.

RWill's block @ :55 was unbelievable.  At 1:35 RWill goes out to contest a 3, something A LOT of centers don't like doing, and then ran the floor for the dunk.




Derrick's highlights.  Unfortunately, highlight films never fully give credit to defensive effort and results unless they result in a steal or a block or some other quantifiable metric.  His block of Trae at the rim.  Derrick with the offensive rebound of his own miss over 6'7"+ Saddiq Bey @ :18.  His in-air fake out of Capela for a spinning layup @ :31.  Really, Derrick with just an absolutely stellar game on both ends.  I think we were all dubious after last year whether Brad gave up too much for him.  Nope, not even close.  Romeo and Josh?  What a steal.  As much as I like Josh I doubt either of those players will ever be quality starters.  DWhite starting and making a case for All-Defense.  Consider that, with Smart on the same team.




Bob


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This game was the first time since Dec. 7 and just the third time all season that the Atlanta Hawks were held to less than 100 points in a game.  The Hawks took (and made) a shot as time ran out in a decided game, so it shouldn't even have been 99 points.

Atlanta has been held to less than 105 points in just nine regular season games this year.

That's a win for our defense.

We are spending too much time trying to put some blame on Celtics, let's face it, They just started hitting shots they were missing in the first half. Also, everytime Tatum got the ball he was double teamed in the half. He drove the ball several times yesterday, did not just rely on his three point shot, and for some ???reason, they would not put him on the line. They Celtics allowed them to get close, then pushed it right back to 18 and took some wind out of their sails. Let's put this in the bank and move on. Adjustments will be made, you can be sure Young will try to shoot more next game, so...let's work on that. The one that scares me is Bogie, he is a good ballplayer, and can hit from all over. The next game will be alot closer i think, here's hoping Jaylen is ok, we need him

Defense wins championships.  The Celtics played great defense.  When you hold a high scoring team under 100 points, you must be doing something right.

Getting that first win sets the stage for this series.  

When the Celtics see a big lead dwindle, I am always reminded of words of wisdom from John Havlicek.

"No team can stay hot too long and no team can stay cold"

If there is a problem it is TO's don't necessarily determine the outcome. Not with this team at least. We've seen them play and turn the ball over 20 times but still win comfortably. But TO's certainly don't help matters. Not against the other two teams that could be waiting for us in the East.

I do like the driving to the basket. That was impressive. Joe and this team can read and react to the scouting report. Match ups. If you can't play defense and have nothing to stop us going down the lane, until you make an adjustment we're driving through. You stop us driving then it's 3-balling. Good luck. Too many weapons.

Looks like Trey Young is going to be the next recipient of the KD Looking Like A 5th Grader Playing Basketball Award from last year's playoffs. Derrick White is a BEAST!! Don't let that choir boy, can't find my goofy-ass with both hands look fool you.

Something that is going unnoticed is RWIII coming off the bench. Dang!! That may be the move of this series. Start/Come off the Bench, whatever. It doesn't matter. He's another beast.

We'll fix the shedding of a big lead in the next game. It will be of utmost importance to shut the air hose off for ATL in G2.

db

The Celtics were at practice today and according to CJ, there are no restrictions on Jaylen.  He still has some padding on his injured hand.

Jaylen had a great game on Saturday except for his 6 turnovers.

Maybe CJ will not call on him to handle the ball as much.  There are more than enough ball handlers and play makers on offense.

The Hawks realize that they have to play with more force.  I would expect them to play more physical.  

If the Celtics maintain a quick pace with spacing, they should be able to do well in game 2.

I am wondering if we will see a little more from RW in terms of minutes and less from AH.  Al played 38 minutes in game 1 and Rob only played 22.  MB did not have a good game shooting (1-6) and Sam played 11 minutes while going 0-2 with 1 rebound.

One of our top rotation guys, Grant Williams was a DNP.  I expect him to get some minutes during this series.  

Unlike the regular season that included a lot of B2B games there will always be a recovery day so hopefully that will keep AH fresh although 38 MPG is on the high side IMO.  After game 3 on Friday in Atl they will be playing every other day in this series.

The Celts were a -10 in FGA in game 1 and that was partly due to turnovers (17 for us and 11 for them)

I was somewhat surprised that we only took 33 three point attempts.  I would like them to get that number up in the 40 range.  Of course I want to see quality shots.

Young said that they want to make the Celtics take tough 2 pointers.  I can see cuts to the basket for us.

2 things going into game #2.  First clean up all the turnovers and two be even better than our 58-45 rebounding advantage especially in limiting their offensive rebounds (14-12 their advantage)

Taking the Celtics in game 2 definitely.

Much as I prefer being disagreeeable, I ticked off everything on dboss' list and it pretty much all made sense. I love it when people think things out for me like that

Game 2 needs to be the No Hope For You game. ATL needs to leave Boston with a feeling this series is over and going back to ATL will not make any difference. I don't know how they pull that off but that's why they all make the big bucks!!

No Mercy Rule needs to be in effect. dboss has spoken! Place your bets accordingly!

db

dbrown4 wrote:Game 2 needs to be the No Hope For You game.  ATL needs to leave Boston with a feeling this series is over and going back to ATL will not make any difference.  I don't know how they pull that off but that's why they all make the big bucks!!

No Mercy Rule needs to be in effect.  dboss has spoken!  Place your bets accordingly!  

db

                                                              I agree. The second half of game one kept hope alive.