NBA playoff dispatches: Hawks pull one back at home

FOX Sports writers are providing takeaways off games throughout the NBA playoffs. Here are their thoughts from the opening day of the first round.

Hawks 130, Celtics 122: Hawks steal one

After smashing the Atlanta Hawks in their first game and then steadily pulling away in the second one, the Boston Celtics apparently decided a solid fourth quarter would be enough to get the job done in Game 3 of their best-of-seven first-round series.

They were wrong. But not by much.

The Hawks now trail in the series 2-1 after their 130-122 victory, avoiding the dreaded 3-0 series hole, out of which no team in NBA history has escaped.

Game 4 is Sunday, and it’s a safe bet that the Celtics won’t take the Hawks quite this lightly again. The league’s third-best defense allowed Atlanta to score 74 first-half points while shooting 65 percent. If the Celtics felt no sense of urgency, it’s because the Hawks’ lackadaisical perimeter defense allowed them to stay within striking distance by knocking down open 3s. Boston took 22 of them in the first half and made 15, a near 70 percent clip. That was good enough to stay within seven at halftime.

The Hawks’ lead was still seven going into the final 12 minutes when Boston decided to ramp up their defense. The effect was immediate. Atlanta committed four turnovers in the first 2 1/2 minutes. The Celtics turned every one of them into a layup or tip-in, trimming the deficit to one.

Despite multiple chances to tie or take the lead, though, the Celtics couldn’t turn the tide. Twice, down by two, they coaxed the Hawks into missing shots but couldn’t snare the subsequent rebound.

“I thought they capitalized on their second-chance opportunities, unlike in the first two games,” said Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.

The biggest sequence came with 2:45 left and Atlanta leading 118-116. Trae Young missed a finger-roll layup and Clint Capela’s tip-in attempt didn’t fall, either, but ball went out of bounds off Boston. Dejounte Murray then missed a pull-up 12-footer on the subsequent inbound play, but the ball went out of bounds off Boston once again. The Hawks finally appeared stuck, Al Horford thwarting Young’s drive to the hoop with the shot clock winding down, but Young circled back to the arc and buried a three-pointer to push the lead back to five.

Marcus Smart, though, refused to concede. His layup cut the lead to three once again and, once again, it appeared as if the Celtics’ defense might squeeze an empty possession out of the Hawks, Murray trapped in the left corner by Derrick White and the shot clock about to expire. Murray, leaping and fading, managed to get off a shot and hit nothing but net.

“I thought Trae hit a tough shot, I thought Murray hit a tough shot,” said Mazzulla. “They hit a lot of big shots.”

But Smart answered again with a three-pointer and when Jaylen Brown ripped the ball from Atlanta’s DeAndre Hunter on the subsequent possession, it looked as if, maybe, finally, the Celtics could tip the scales. Brown gave it to Al Horford, who threw it crosscourt to a wide open Jayson Tatum for the potential game-tying 3. But his attempt banged off the back rim and Boston’s best last chance at a comeback ended. Young, who struggled mightily in the first two games of the series, scored Atlanta’s final six points, four of them from the free-throw line, to finish with a game-high 32 points and nine assists.

“The whole team was making plays the whole night,” Young said. “It’s not always about scoring. I just tried to make the right play and tonight I did that.”

— Ric Bucher

Ric Bucher is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He previously wrote for Bleacher Report, ESPN The Magazine and The Washington Post and has written two books, “Rebound,” on NBA forward Brian Grant’s battle with young onset Parkinson’s, and “Yao: A Life In Two Worlds.” He also has a daily podcast, “On The Ball with Ric Bucher.” Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.

John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him on Twitter @John_Fanta.