The Hawks proceeded to storm out to a 24-3 lead, getting several three-pointers from Kyle Korver, forcing several Celtics turnovers and watching as Boston bricked one shot after another – something that would become a common theme. He hit a treble of threes en route to a game-high 17 points one game after several television pundits determined he was not deserving of being labeled a great player. The Hawks bolted to leads of 9-2 and 20-10 in the first quarter. The Celtics at one point trailed the Atlanta Hawks 24-to-3 in the first quarter. Boston struggled to hit wide-open outside shots in Game 1 and couldn’t finish at the rim in Game 2.
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Al Horford and Kyle Korver led Atlanta with 17 points apiece, but this game was essentially decided in the first 12 minutes.
LaMarcus Aldridge had 10 points and eight rebounds in 26 minutes.
Boston point guard Isaiah Thomas, who scored 27 points in Game 1, finished with only 16, half of those points coming in the fourth quarter after the game was out of reach.
“He did a great job”, said Evan Turner, the only other Celtic who made at least five shots. But I haven’t thought of Atlanta as a scary defensive team where you’ve got to go in there and second-guess yourself on blocked shots like a DeAndre Jordan or Hassan Whiteside or things like that. We have to roll the dice a little and find a way to switch things when we get home.
Atlanta cooled off in an ugly second quarter, allowing Boston to chip away at the lead. You go down and get a bucket.
If Game 5 is necessary in the San Antonio-Memphis series but not necessary in the Cleveland-Detroit and Atlanta-Boston series, game time is 7 p.m. on TNT.
“But it was just a matter of we lost him a few times and our transition D was bad, especially in that first quarter”. The Hawks went ice-cold from the floor, connecting on 13 of 43 field goals in the second and third quarters.
Thomas, though averaging 21.5 points per game, is shooting 33.3 percent overall.
It also helped that when the Celtics did create open looks, which they managed to do reasonably enough, they wouldn’t have been able to drop a rock in the ocean the way they were shooting. The Hawks made only 39 percent of their shots. Horford continues to give the Hawks a presence down in the paint where he can either back an opposing big down or turn around and take a step back jumper that he has owned in the last two seasons.
“I would say that it would be questionable [for Olynyk] based on my conversations today with [team trainer] Ed Lacerte, but I have not talked to Kelly today, so I don’t know if it would be better or worse than that”, Stevens said. In a best-of-seven series, teams hone in on their opponent in search of any possibly weakness – and, when one is found, it is exploited as much as possible. With the series shifting to TD Garden for Games 3 and 4, Isaiah Thomas thinks the Celtics can battle back.
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Nor, it seems, will Bradley, who said he heard a pop after suffering a right hamstring strain during the fourth quarter of Atlanta’s 102-101 win, and who’s expected to be out for the remainder of the series. Second-year G Marcus Smart started in Bradley’s place for Game 2…. He injured the shoulder before the All-Star break, causing him to miss 12 games….
