The Boston Celtics were heavily favored entering their first round playoff series with the Atlanta Hawks and we saw why on Saturday.
The Celtics defeated the Hawks 112-99 to grab a 1-0 series lead. The game was nowhere near as close as the final score would indicate. Boston raced out to a 74-44 halftime lead. Atlanta cut it to 12 in the 4th quarter but never really threatened.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 29 points and 12 rebounds in his first action since cutting his had on a vase late in the regular season. Brown did struggle with the bandaging on his hand and revealed after the game that his cut “split open.” No word on if or how that might affect him going forward.
Jayson Tatum added 25 points, 21 in the first half. Derrick White also finished with 25 points to go with 11 rebounds.
The No. 2-seeded Celtics led by as many as 32 points combining blistering first half shooting (60% FG, 56.3% 3-pt) with lock down defense capitalizing on an Atlanta team that missed its first 10 3-point attempts and shot 5 of 29 from beyond the arc for the game.
The Celtics big guards did a good job disrupting Atlanta’s duo of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray. Young missed his first six shots beyond the arc and was 5 of 18 from the field finishing with only 16 points. Murray was 10 of 25 from the floor for 24 points,
Atlanta used a 32-12 run to cut the deficit to 96-84 on a three-point play by Bogdan Bogdanovic early in the fourth. Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said he’s not too worried about the late game lapse.
“I’m not concerned at all,” Mazulla said. “This team has played great for the entire season. That’s going to happen. It’s actually good that we went through it. We had to feel that and it’s important that we learn from it.”
“Human nature plays a part,” added Tatum. “But we don’t want things like that to haunt us.”
The Celtics and Hawks will battle once again in game 2 on Tuesday at 7:30.
“We expect to get their best shot,” Brown said. “We let them get a little more comfortable in the second half, so I expect the next game for them to be a little more prepared. So we’ve got to be a little more prepared as well.”
