Celtics Have No Answers for Hawks Defense and Tuesday NBA Playoff Takeaways

With nine minutes, 33 seconds remaining, Terry Rozier received a tough transition feed from Evan Turner and found the bottom of the net on a reverse layup, giving the Boston Celtics their 50th and 51st points of the night.

This wasn’t in the second quarter. It wasn’t even in the third. The C’s couldn’t break past the half-century mark against the Atlanta Hawks’ stifling defense until less than 10 minutes remained in the entire game. 

By the time the final buzzer rang and signaled the end of Atlanta’s 89-72 Game 2 victory, Boston had to be seriously demoralized. Its offense had been thoroughly destroyed for 48 straight minutes—the product of Atlanta’s interior efforts and an inability to do anything but play into the hands of the East’s No. 4 seed. 

The Hawks blocked 15 shots on the night, including four from Paul Millsap and another five from Al Horford. Those two bigs controlled the paint whenever they were on the floor, using their quick hands to alter attempts and rack up rejections when they weren’t disrupting passing lanes. 

Better still, they managed to come up with opportune stops that led to transition buckets, like this perfect display of verticality from Horford that turned into a quick basket from the speedy Jeff Teague: 

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Highlight plays also managed to prevent Boston from earning any semblance of momentum.

Even when it seemed like Isaiah Thomas was going to speed to the rim and lay up an easy deuce to cut the lead to single digits, Millsap was there to provide help and staple the attempt to the backboard. All night, Atlanta refused to allow any uncontested buckets, forcing a limited Celtics outfit to work tirelessly for any semblance of space. 

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And when fundamental excellence greets you at every turn, that’s a rather difficult proposition. 

Take this third-quarter play from Horford as an example. Caught between a driving Thomas and his own assignment, he managed to stick with his man just long enough to prevent an early pass, close out just enough to prevent a shot and then use his quick hands to force yet another Boston turnover. 

How many big men not only have the presence of mind to make this play but also the requisite skill?

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The Celtics mustered up only seven points in the first quarter to set a rather ignominious postseason record. By halftime, they’d recorded just 28 and went scoreless for over five minutes before retreating back into the Philips Arena locker room. They’d even hit just one of their 13 attempts from beyond the three-point arc. 

The final total of 72 points—the 12th-lowest postseason tally in the last five …

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