The Atlanta Hawks tied the season series 2-2 in their final game against the Boston Celtics with a 112-102 Monday-night win at the State Farm Arena, continuing the team’s 13-game winning streak at home.
The Celtics beat the Hawks 109-102 without Jaylen Brown three nights ago in Boston, but struggled to score against or stop Atlanta — which has won 16 of its last 18 games — on Monday without Jayson Tatum and Neemias Queta, both of whom sat out the night.
After playing last night in the win over the Charlotte
Hornets, Tatum sat out the second night of the back-to-back for right Achilles repair management. Queta was inactive due to a right thumb strain.
The Celtics were also missing Nikola Vučević, who continues to recover from a fracture in his right ring finger, and Ron Harper Jr., who suffered a right ankle sprain against the Hornets.
On the other hand, Brown and Derrick White returned to the lineup after missing last night’s game with left Achilles tendonitis and a right knee contusion, respectively.
Boston started White, Brown, Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman, and Luka Garza.
Atlanta started CJ McCollum, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Johnson, and Onyeka Okongwu.
The Hawks’ only inactive player was Jock Landale, who sat out with an illness.
The start of the first quarter was all about Luka Garza. Garza scored 8 of the Celtics’ first 12 points with a handful of impressive plays, including a spin move from the free throw line to get a finger roll layup at the rim.
However, when Coach Joe Mazzulla pulled Garza about six minutes in for Amari Williams at center, it then became the Payton Pritchard show. Pritchard hit 3-5 from the field, with two three-pointers, one of which bounced high off the rim and fell back in.
Jaylen Brown struggled to find his own shot in the first quarter. He had a few early feeds to his teammates, but shot 2-7 from the floor, finishing the quarter with 6 points.
On the other end of the court, the Hawks did what they do best and forced 7 turnovers off the Celtics, converting on most of those takes. Johnson finished the quarter with 7 points and Zaccharie Risacher hit a pair of 3s for 6 points.
By the time the quarter ended, the Celtics were up 30-29, with Garza and Pritchard tied for the scoring lead at 8 points apiece.
The Hawks started the second quarter with three quick buckets to go up 36-30, while the Celtics did not score for almost 2:30 minutes.
Pritchard broke the seal with a short pullup jumper at 9:32 and Garza, who started the quarter, hit a three-pointer from the top of the key to bring the game to 35-36.
With about 8 minutes left to go in the quarter, Mazzulla subbed in Charles Bassey, who immediately made an impact with his defense and energy. He tapped in a rebound for a couple points and got a couple blocks in a row, then bothered a third shot on the next play.
Brown’s struggles continued into the second quarter, and he appeared frustrated with a lack of calls from the referees. He finished the half with 6 points — 0 in the second quarter — on 2-9 shooting from the field and 4 turnovers. He still contributed with 5 rebounds and 6 assists, but his own scoring game was rough.
Derrick White also struggled offensively to start the game, shooting 3-9 from the field and 1-4 from three-point range, but also chipped in with 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block.
By the half, both teams were tied 54-54, with Garza and Pritchard still leading the pack with 13 points apiece. On the Hawks side, Dyson Daniels had 11 points and 3 steals, Jalen Johnson had 10 points, and team had racked up 10 steals as a whole.
Maybe Brown got through to the refs over the halftime break because he got a couple fouls calls go his way early in the third quarter. That may have boosted his confidence, as he then hit a slick midrange shot to put the Celtics up 59-58, but he continued to struggle against Daniels and was 4-18 from the field by the end of the period.
Garza’s contributions continued in the third. He hit his second three-pointer about 4 minutes into the quarter to get to 16 points on 6-6 shooting, then made an impressive effort play a play or two later, where he saved the ball and got it to Brown for a bucket.
Pritchard also chipped in with another three-pointer, but the Hawks went on a 16-5 run over about four minutes in the third quarter and took the game’s first double-digit lead, 79-68, near the end of the period on an easy under-the-rim basket by Jonathan Kuminga.
The Celtics battled back with a few buckets, including a nice Hugo Gonzalez three-pointer, but Daniels hit a second three-pointer (he went 2-2 through the third quarter despite shooting 15% from three-point range for the season) to put the Hawks up 90-76 by the end of the quarter.
Daniels finished the quarter with 18 points, leading all players in points on 8-9 shooting from the field.
The Hawks’ barrage continued with a CJ McCollum three-pointer and floater in the first couple minutes to put Atlanta up 95-77, and their defense did not let up.
With about 8 minutes to go in the game, the Hawks were up 101-80 and the Celtics could get nothing to fall. Brown was 5-21 from the field, White was 3-12, Jordan Walsh was 1-4 and Baylor Scheierman was 1-3. Garza even missed his first shot of the night, ruining his perfect evening.
When the Celtics broke through the Hawks defense with a Scheierman three-pointer and a putback layup by Garza, Atlanta called a timeout with 5:45 minutes to go in the game.
That failed to stop Boston’s mini-run, as Brown got a thunderous dunk shortly after to extend it to a 7-0 run. Garza then got a cutting layup on the next play to get to 20 points for the night and bring the Celtics back to within 12 of the Hawks, at 89-101.
Johnson hit a jumper, but Walsh hit a 26-footer on an assist from Brown, then Brown hit a pullup three-pointer to cut the lead to 8 points, 95-103.
Brown hit another three-pointer shortly after to keep the game interesting, but it was just about over by the time he missed his next attempt with 1:37 to go.
The game was sealed when Walsh fouled Alexander-Walker on a three-point attempt, allowing the Hawks to extend the lead back up to 11 points with less than a minute to go.
Over the course of the game, the Celtics turned the ball over 14 times and shot 41.2% from the field. The Hawks solidly outshot Boston, hitting 46.7% from the field and 39.5% from three-point range.
A late burst from Jaylen Brown got him to 29 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists for the night on 9-29 shooting from the field and 8-14 shooting from the line.
Garza was the team’s second-leading scorer with 20 points and 9 rebounds on 8-9 shooting from the field over 28 minutes.
Pritchard finished with 16 points on 4-6 shooting from three-point range, but posted Boston’s worst +/- of the night with -19 over his 25:33 minutes of play time.
White ended the game with 7 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks on 3-12 shooting from the field and 1-6 shooting from three-point range.
On the Hawks side, Johnson finished with 20 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists on 53.8% shooting from the floor. Okongwu also finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds, 3 rebounds, 3 steals and a block. Daniels finished with 18 points on 8-11 shooting from the field, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.
The Celtics are now 7-5 in the second night of back-to-back games.
Boston is now 50-25 and two games up on the New York Knicks for the 2nd seed in the Eastern Conference, with only seven games left to be played in the regular season.
The Celtics’ next game will be against the Miami Heat at 7:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday, April 1, at the Kaseya Center in Miami. ESPN will broadcast the game.
