FOX Sports writers are providing takeaways from games throughout the NBA playoffs. Here are their thoughts from Tuesday.
There was no doubt who was getting the basketball with 7.3 seconds on the clock.
With his team down one, Trae Young wrote another chapter to his heroics on Tuesday night, and the Hawks shocked everybody but maybe themselves. Maybe.
Charging a comeback from 13 points down at TD Garden, Young did want to go home…to Atlanta for game six. He drained a cold-blooded 30-footer with 1.8 seconds left to deliver a 119-117 game five victory over the Celtics, and force 2-seed Boston back on the plane for an improbable sixth game in this series on Thursday night.
No Dejounte Murray, who was serving a suspension after making contact with an official following game four. Jaylen Brown going off for 35 points. Allowing 60 points in the paint.
The odds were stacked against the Hawks, but they showed why they fired Nate McMillan in February and tried to salvage the season with Quin Snyder. Because every time they step on the floor, the one thing this team always has going for it is this:
Atlanta has Young, and the other team doesn’t.
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To have his back against the wall and the threat of his season ending, Young authored the most clutch performance of the postseason to date, scoring the Hawks’ last 14 points over the final 3:18 of the game.
And he did it without the second-leading scorer for the Hawks, Murray, who will be back from his suspension on Thursday. When that all went down, and it became official he would be out for Tuesday night’s matchup, nobody could have seen Atlanta winning. Nobody.
But the Celtics should throw blame at themselves while the Sixers get to continue to rest at home awaiting an opponent for the second round.
As great as Young was, Boston collapsed in this game. To lose a 109-96 lead with just over six minutes left against a shorthanded 7-seed is inexcusable for the Celtics. They allowed Atlanta’s offensively oriented style to dictate the way the game was played. Maybe that was because the Celtics were up 3-1 and assumed they had this wrapped. Maybe it was because Jayson Tatum had a bad night from 3, going 1-for-10 and needing to take 21 shots to reach 19 points. But whatever it was, this is the first major moment that Joe Mazzulla has been in the line of criticism.
Young had it way too easy at the end of the game to get shots to his liking, particularly on Atlanta’s final possession. The Celtics should have sent two defenders to the Hawks’ star, who everybody knew was getting the basketball at that moment, right away.
Additionally, Boston committed three of its nine turnovers in the final three and a half minutes, and much of it was just foolishness by the Celtics.
Now, was Tuesday a bit of an outlier? In some ways, yes: John Collins scored 22 points on 9-of-18 from the floor after totaling 18 points in the previous three games combined. Bogdan Bogdanovic matched his best game of the series with 18 points on 6-of-9 from the floor to go along with five assists. And after going 14-for-37 from 3 in game four, the Hawks shot a scalding 19-for-41 from 3 on Tuesday.
But the fact of the matter is simple: the Celtics came out pretty nonchalant at home, allowed the Hawks to get into a rhythm and let the door open late instead of putting the game away.
The Hawks certainly aren’t what some of the heavyweights in the league are, but they haven’t been afraid at all of the reigning Eastern Conference champions.
And because of Young, Thursday night’s Janet Jackson concert will have to wait at State Farm Arena.
Because of Young, the hardwood will be put back down, and the Hawks will look to force a game seven.
Nobody could have seen it coming.
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.
Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He is the author of “Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports.” Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.
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