Kyle Korver came out shooting, and this time he couldn’t miss.
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The Boston Celtics? They couldn’t make anything.
The most important stat from this series is that the Hawks lead 2-0, but the Celtics’ historically bad offensive performance was the main takeaway from their listless Game 2 showing – falling to the Hawks, 89-72.
Atlanta jumped out to a 24-3 lead that featured four Korver 3-pointers in the first seven minutes.
“I think the bottom line is there’s certain little tweaks that you make game to game”, said Stevens during a conference call with the media on Wednesday.
Patty Mills had 16 points, Kawhi Leonard added 13 and San Antonio never trailed in beating Memphis 94-68 on Tuesday night to sweep the first two games of the first-round series in imposing fashion. With no Bradley there to paper over the cracks, and Thomas unable to guard Kyle Korver, the Celtics were forced to play one of their bigs on him to start the game.
“I don’t know what it is”, said Boston’s Jae Crowder, looking a bit shell-shocked after scoring just two points on one-of-nine shooting. Marcus Smart stepped in for the injured Avery Bradley and went 1 of 11. The Hawks blocked 15 shots, a franchise playoff record.
The Celtics shoot a slew of 3-pointers – they were 11th in attempts over the regular season – because they’re small.
The seven points allowed were the lowest in a first quarter in National Basketball Association playoff history in the shot-clock era. “Just playing hard overall, and that’s what we gotta do to win games, especially in the first half”. They were outscored in the lane by a team that has no quality low-post players. They’re good at it, and we just have to either finish it off to a big or a drive and kick. “Not just for myself, but for everybody on this team“. The Celtics got within 36-26 on a Johnson bucket but Korver answered with another 3-pointer and Boston went scoreless in the final five minutes of the half as the Hawks took a 43-28 lead into intermission.
Even after failing to score the rest of the period, the Hawks still led 24-7.
That, for all intents and purposes, was the ballgame.
The series now moves to Boston for Game Three on Friday, with the Celtics desperately needing to turn around their form if they are to extend the series. The No. 4 seeded Hawks took a 2-0 series lead over the No. 5 seeded Celtics with the victory. “They’re going to come out and give us their best shot, and we know that we have to be ready for that”.
Game 3 will be played at the TD Garden in Boston on Friday.
“I feel bad for [Bradley and Olynyk] because this is the time of year where everybody wants to be healthy, everybody wants to play, everybody wants to get their crack at it”, Stevens said. With the series shifting to TD Garden for Games 3 and 4, Isaiah Thomas thinks the Celtics can battle back. He was expecting one of the Celtics to suddenly fly into his view. And when Jared Sullinger, replaced by Turner with the second half starters, checked in, the Celtics lost even more defensively.
In fact, the Celtics made just 18 of their 46 shots inside the paint (39.1 percent).
They held Paul Millsap and Kent Bazemore to 2-for-22 shooting after the tidal wave passed, but Al Horford turned in an elite night.
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“The way we, our group, started tonight was something that is a credit to our players”, said Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer.
