At this point in his NBA career, it's hard to know what exactly Celtics (15-14 overall, 8-5 home) point guard Kemba Walker (team-high 28 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals) is going to have in a given game. That's why nights like tonight are such a tease as Boston beat Atlanta 121-109 at TD Garden, a bit of payback after the Hawks won here on Wednesday and dropped the home team to the .500 mark. This was the fourth time this season that the C's have played a two-game set against the same opponent and they are 1-1 in three of them (losing Game 1 all four times) and 0-2 in one (falling twice in Philly to the best team in the East). All five Celtics starters scored at least 14 points in the victory while they led by as much as 25 points before hanging on as the Hawks cut it to a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
Last night, Celtics swingman Jayson Tatum (25 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks) and shooting guard Jaylen Brown (17 points, 6 assists) were not named starters (no surprise there) for the Eastern Conference in the All-Star Game but they are both expected to be named reserves on the team. This is a big deal since Tatum made his first All-Star team last season and it would be Brown's first of his career-ironically in his hometown of Atlanta. For once, all of Boston's big guys played well in the same contest: power forward Tristian Thompson had 17 points and five rebounds, center Daniel Theis added 14 points, eight rebounds and three blocks while Robert Williams was great off the bench with 12 points, seven rebounds, four blocks and two steals in only 16 minutes of action. For Atlanta, point guard Trae Young (game-high 31 points, 11 assists, 3 steals) and center Clint Capela (24 points, 15 rebounds) were both very good yet again but the difference this time is that the Celtics managed hold down Atlanta's others. Nobody else on the Hawks scored in double-figures and power forward John Collins (8 points on 3-of-13 shooting) was a non-factor after he had 20 points two nights earlier.
The C's were ready to go right from the opening tip (what a concept!) and that showed in a strong first quarter (33-22) and an even better second quarter which gave them an insurmountable 66-41 halftime lead. Each team scored 32 points apiece in the third quarter and then Atlanta finally woke up a bit in the fourth quarter but it was thankfully too late to make a real difference. Boston shot 13.4% better from the field (55.6%-42.2%) than the Hawks, they hit four more 3-pointers (14-10), pulled down seven more defensive rebounds (35-28), blocked twice as many shots (12-6), they scored 14 more points in the paint (66-52) and twice as many fast break points (12-6).
The Celtics now depart on a three-game road trip that on paper at least doesn't look that difficult: they are in New Orleans (12-17 overall, 7-7 home) on Sunday afternoon (3:30, ABC) to take on Zion Williamson and the Pelicans in a nationally televised matchup, weather-permitting they go to Dallas (13-15 overall, 6-8 home) on Tuesday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) for their first look at Luka Doncic and the Mavericks this season and they wrap things up in Atlanta the next night (7:30, NBC Sports Boston). Who's drunken idea in the NBA league office was it to have the Celtics and Hawks face each other three times in a week in the regular season (these aren't make-up dates for postponed games)? None of those three clubs are over .500 and zero are currently playoff teams so the Celts need to go at least 2-1 on this trip. A mark of a good team in any sport is that they take care of business against the bad teams. They will see some of the league's brightest young talents but make no mistake, Boston should beat all of their mediocre at best teams.
