Official Game Thread: Hawks - Celtics

[lethalweapon3]

Miley Cyrus Karaoke, Jared? Don’t Sully your reputation!

Some All-Star “Break” this is!

About one-third of the Atlanta Hawks will join their head coach this coming weekend in chilly New York City. They’ll be giving scores of interviews, pleaded for selfies by various and sundry B-list celebrities and self-important people, participating in multiple games and skill events, and offering millions of skeptical fans a glimpse of what makes this team the current standard-bearer in the NBA East.

Yet before they can look ahead to any of that, they have to mush through Boston’s Snowpile of the Millennia to meet the Celtics (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, CSN New England) at Boston Garden. With a win the Hawks (43-10) can secure a double-digit lead over second-place Washington in the Southeast Division, and over every team aside from Atlantic Division-feeding Toronto in the Eastern Conference. Atlanta has won their last 13 Eastern Conference games, a franchise record, including seven straight on the road.

The good news is the All-Star Break has been elongated, so there’s no rushing back after The Big Show to play another official game in the middle of the following week. The other good news? The annual Ringling Bros. takeover of Philips Arena starts today and coincides with the break. So unlike the situation in many past seasons, Atlanta won’t have to go from the break to an exhaustive circus trip, its big West Coast road swing not coming until mid-March.

The last time the Celtics hosted the Hawks, a 105-91 Atlanta win about a month ago, coach Mike Budenholzer rested Al Horford and Kyle Korver. One night after getting rest in the Philadelphia game, Paul Millsap, DeMarre Carroll, and Jeff Teague combined for 62 points while shooting 57.1% from the floor. Boston has had three days off to get ready for the rematch.

The Hawks benefitted from a day of rest after their win in Minnesota on Monday, so it’s not likely their starters will completely sit this one out. The Four All-Stars Plus One are very likely to have their minutes constrained, granting Dennis Schröder, Shelvin Mack, Mike Scott, Kent Bazemore and Pero Antić (who sat out the Minnesota game) ample time to wear out the parquet floor. Mack (nine points in 14 minutes on January 14) has not played since returning last week from a calf strain. He could be useful once again going head-to-head with his former college coach Brad Stevens’ gaggle of Celtic guards.

When they last hosted Atlanta, Boston was weeks removed from shipping out star playmaker Rajon Rondo, and just days before they traded away leading scorer Jeff Green, veteran acquisition Tayshaun Prince in player purgatory at the time. The Celts now have no one averaging 15 or more points, and the team’s third-leading scorer (Kelly Olynyk, the second-year backup center… yikes…) has been out for several weeks with a sprained ankle. Their top passer for the moment, Evan Turner, averages 5.8 APG since he was moved into the starting lineup full-time.

Despite all of that, were it not for some late heroics from Brandon Knight in Milwaukee this past Saturday, Boston could have come into tonight’s game riding a four-game winning streak. Keyed by Avery Bradley, Boston’s perimeter defense has been pretty good (last ten games, 31.7 opponent 3FG%). A team that had been nonchalant about defense all season (102.6 opponent PPG, most in East) has given up just 97.8 points per game in their last ten.

While Boston (19-31, just 2.5 games out of 7^th place) has given up triple digits to the opposition just once (exactly 100 points, to Denver) in its last six games, Thabo-less Atlanta has allowed 100+ points in three of its last five, opponents averaging 105.8 PPG. The Hawks’ 65.5 D-Reb% this month is by far a league-low. The backup bigs have to show greater proficiency in the defensive rebounding department. Atlanta is 5-0 when Antić notches more than three defensive rebounds in a game; they’re 7-2 (both losses in the three games of the season) when Scott does the same.

Even with Rondo a faded memory, the Celtics are still distributing well as a team (24.2 February APG, 6^th in NBA), and are doing a decent job with play execution (12.8 TOs/game in last ten games). Stevens has inserted lotto rookie Marcus Smart into the starting lineup, shifting Turner to shooting guard and Avery Bradley into the small forward spot.

The double-barreled passing attack of Smart and Turner is opening things up right on time for the not-always-right-on-time Jared Sullinger (16.4 PPG, 2.4 O-Rebs per game, 4.0 APG in February) and Tyler Zeller (13.2 PPG, 2.6 O-Rebs per game this month) in and around the paint, as well as Bradley (17.6 PPG, 41.7 3FG% this month) and Marcus Thornton (44.4 February 3FG%) around the horn. The Celtics could spread opposing defenses out even more effectively if Turner (25.0 FG%, 10.0 3FG% in February) or Smart (31.4 FG%, 25.0 3FG% this month) were more of a threat to score themselves.

It would also help Boston’s cause if their backcourt could disrupt the execution of opposing playmakers. While the Sixers were a minimal threat in the Celtics’ last home game, they had Smokin’ Tim Frazier come in fresh from the D-League (Boston’s Maine affiliate, no less) and put up 11 assists off the bench in his NBA debut, as Philly narrowed an 18-point halftime deficit to three.

While Stevens would prefer to stick Bradley onto Teague and Schröder, the small Boston lineup would get exploited by Korver (4-for-9 3FGs at Minnesota on Monday) and Carroll (career-high 26 points at Minnesota). So he’ll rely on Smart (team-high 1.2 SPG) and D-League yo-yo Phil Pressey (2.0 steals per-36) to put pressure on Atlanta’s ballhandlers.

The Hawks left 2014 first-rounder and Amway ambassador Adreian Payne behind in Minnesota. Might they have Brandon Bass joining them on the next flight out of Logan? The 6-foot-8 YouTube rapper with a $7 million expiring contract was mysteriously inserted into Boston’s starting lineup at power forward three weeks ago, averaging 6.5 RPG while shooting 46.6 FG% as the trade deadline lies around the corner.

Bass (15.6 D-Reb%) is not a significantly better defensive rebounder than Scott (13.8 D-Reb%), particularly over the course of his career. But he has been better at blocking shots and man defense (101.3 defensive rating, tops among Boston’s major players). While he remains hopelessly in love with shooting long twos (45.9 2FG% beyond 15 feet), recently Bass has been experimenting with the corner shots (3-for-6 3FGs in the past month; 2-for-21 in his past nine seasons). It’s as if he suspects someone that values that sort of thing might have their eyes on him. Coincidentally, at the end of December Bass cited the Hawks’ second-place position as proof that the East was “wide open”.

Celtics GM Danny Ainge has Bass, Thornton, and Prince (combined $23 million expiring contracts) on the trading block. Ainge is of course hoarding draft picks, but he’ll have to throw in some of his younger talent if he’s looking to grab another first-rounder. Tayshaun is the most coveted, but most teams prefer to wait for a Boston buyout rather than cough up a Prince-ly sum to get him.

That season-long winning streak the Hawks had when they get up by more than ten points? Still going. Conversely, Boston has taken 29-straight L’s when they fall behind by more than 12 points. As was the case in the last two meetings, the Celtics will give the Hawks everything they’ve got in the first half, and it will be incumbent upon the Hawks’ reserves to pull away when Boston runs out of fuel. Only then can thoughts turn to what high jinks Kevin Hart might pull this weekend.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

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[Guest]

Great job as usual lw3!!! You always get us knowledged up for the game :-) Somewhere Satch is shaking his head about that pic of his son singing Miley notes. So the key is for either Pero or Scott to collect 3 defensive rebounds? I'm going go out on a limb and say they will both do it tonight due to increased PT to rest the starters.

LETS GO HAWKSSSSS!!!! Finish strong!!!

Ps I can't stomach watching Kevin Hart this weekend. A lot if people think he's funny. I find him annoying as hell and wish he'd stop being a focus of the all star weekend. I just don't find him funny AT ALL.

[DJlaysitup]

Great stuff as usual lw3...hold it!

 

Getting a text from my Son...possible?....nevermind....Dog got into something.

 

GO HAWKS !!

[Guest]

I'm listening to the dumb celts broadcast. Is Horford ok? I know he made a couple buckets after but he was stretching his pecs...?

[CBAreject]

I have an idea. Lets hold Boston under 30% shooting and still lose to them

[TheTruth]

We better not blow this...

 

GS has been struggling with MIN tonight as well. A few minutes ago, GS was only up 4.

[CBAreject]

No really, let's get up by 18 and play like dog butt and lose

[AtLaS]

Season = Over

[TheTruth]

Effing pissed. What a gawd damn shame.

[Gray Mule]

That's what happens when you can't hit your free throws!!

[Plainview1981]

This team has no heart.

[ATLHawks3]

Ok this loss hurts.

[Guest]

Here come the haters hide the women and children

[atlhawks1]

but when i suggested we make a trade for plumlee ( another big), people kept saying we need another wing defender. folks, teams are gonna slow us down and attack our interior in the playoffs, just like boston did tonight. we need help on the boards and at the rim big time...........

[JETSET]

Meltdown coming in 

 

5

 

4

 

3

 

2

 

1

 

......

[Guest]

Don't let the haters lure you into any bs

[PapaWillie]

First time they've really pissed me off this year.  Honestly?  I think this may have been the best lesson of the season.

[capstone21]

This is why you never take any team for granted ... 

 

We just stopped playing in the second half ... 

 

Oh well on to the all star break ... 

 

funny stat ... we have 3 losses in Feb ... that is more losses then December and Feb combined

[JETSET]

Our guys seem too comfortable and relaxed when they get up big lately.  They kept up the same energy earlier in the season.  Hopefully, this all-star break gives them the rest they need and they are able to pick the consistent energy level back up.

 

I miss Thabo.

Edited February 12, 2015 by JETSET

[jrok23]

We are 0-1 without Payne.