Boston Finally Wins, 110 - 85
Aaron Gettings
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The Celtics came out tonight with defense on their mind and walked off the court with a convincing 110 - 85 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
From the opening tip, Boston's demeanor was completely different than it was in Atlanta. They were once again focused on defense, playing aggressive, playing smart and maintaining their intensity for four quarters. Atlanta's first couple possessions, and many many more after that, consisted of being smothered by Celtic defenders, half-heartedly chucking the ball around the court and putting up desperation shots as the shot clock was winding down. We only came away with 5 steals and only forced 13 turnovers, but the reason for tonight's victory isn't going to show up on any stat sheet.
Immediately following tonight's game, Cheryl Miller interviewed Kevin Garnett. They talked about getting back to playing "Celtics Basketball", and what that meant. Mainly, KG said (and I'm paraphrasing), that it meant playing unselfishly, giving yourself on both ends of the court and keeping your intensity level high. We did all of that tonight, and more. We reverted back to making that extra pass on offense. Boxing out around the hoop, preventing the Hawks from getting those cheap second-chance tip-ins and put-backs. Rotating intelligently on defense, coming out to meet the Hawks' perimeter shooters. Just executing and doing all the little things that you need to do to win.
The Celtics' defense was the star of the show tonight, but their offense was nearly as impressive. Ray Allen had 19 points and 4 assists. Paul Pierce had 22 points and 6 assists. Kevin Garnett had 20 points and 7
assists, and Rajon Rondo had 12 points and 7 assists. Not only did everybody get their points, but they shared the ball, made sure everybody was involved and frankly, were way too much for the Hawks to handle.
Mike Bibby was terrible, yet again... 6 points on 2-8 shooting, with 1 assist and 3 turnovers, with a -17 +/- rating. Joe Johnson had a pretty strong game considering he was in early foul trouble, and the Boston defenders had him absolutely smothered. He scored 21 points on 6-11 shooting (with only 2 3's). For those of your keeping track at home, Johnson only took 3 more shots than Bibby. That's a direct result of Doc's defensive gameplan. Each time Joe got the ball, we doubled him, no matter where he was on the court. A few times he was able to break away, a few times Atlanta was able to get him an open look... mostly he was frustrated and had to pass the ball up to someone else. With Johnson out of the equation, Atlanta's offense was stagnant.
MVC: Leon Powe. He didn't do much in the second half, but Leon was in full on Beast Mode in the first. Coming in for Perk who was in early foul trouble, Leon was the answer to the Hawk's interior domination. Running on nothing 
but hustle and determination, Leon snagged 5 offensive rebounds (7 total) and notched 7 points in the half. He wasn't scared to put up a shot around the rim, and he wasn't letting any high-flying Hawk snatch any rebounds. He was pure old-school tonight, banging down low and letting the Hawks know that we were taking back control of this series. If we're going to be going all the way this year, we're going to need a few more nights like this from Leon... but I have confidence that we'll be getting those.
Every Celtics fans knew (after we recovered from the Game 4 shell-shock) there was no way Boston was going to lose this game at home. Atlanta isn't in the same league as us, and it may have just taken that little scare to bring us back to reality. Regardless of who you're playing, there is no easy victory in the playoffs. You still have to execute on both ends of the court and stick to your gameplan. Like I wrote last night, the Hawks aren't going to roll over for us... but I think tonight we may have finally pushed them to the ground for good.
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