Walker, Celtics bounce back with win over Atlanta

The Celtics, who have been using the .500 mark as a trampoline, headed back toward the ceiling on Friday night thanks to a 121-109 win over Atlanta.

After shooting at a 60% clip throughout their win over the Celtics on Wednesday night, the Hawks returned to the snow-bound Garden on Friday and bumped into a very different kind of defensive presence by the home team.

As a result, and as preached by their coach, more stops translated into a better offensive flow, this time with the Celtics shooting at that 60% clip for most of the night. Kemba Walker turned in arguably his best game of the season with 28 points on 10-for-15 shooting, with Jayson Tatum (25 points, 10-for-21) and a near-perfect Robert Williams (12 points, 6-for-8) picking up the pace. Daniel Theis, with a late run thanks to some prime ball movement, finished with 14.

Trae Young’s 3-pointer threw a late scare into the Celtics, cutting what at one point had been a 27-point lead to 108-99 with 4:50 left.

Tatum hit Theis off a back cut for a 110-99 lead, and when Young missed from 17 feet, Theis scored again on the next possession, this time off a Tristan Thompson lob.

Danilo Gallinari hit from downtown, but with 3:22 left Theis hit from 15 feet. Young, fouled by Thompson, cut the Celtics lead to 114-104 with two free throws.

But Walker buried a deep trey with 2:53 left, Gallinari missed from 30 feet, Tatum rimmed out a fadeaway, and Young cut the Celtics lead to 117-106. Theis scored off another Thompson pass, putting the game out of reach.

The Celtics shot 60.6% (40-for-66) over the first three quarters, and by benefit of a 32-point third opened up a 98-73 lead.

A Hawks flurry early in the fourth momentarily cut the Celtics lead to 14 points, before Tatum scored off a tip-in for a 100-84 edge with 9:30 left.

Brad Stevens called timeout with 7:44 left after Solomon Hill’s 3-pointer cut the Celtics lead to 13 points (103-90). The Celtics came out of the break with a Jaylen Brown miss, but the next time down Walker slashed for a three-point play and a 106-90 edge.

Atlanta continued to cut into the cushion, with back-to-back hoops from Clint Capela trimming the Celtics lead to 108-96 with 5:03 left. Young’s 3 trimmed it further, to nine points.

Walker, looking his sharpest of the season, got the Celtics off to a scorching start with a 20-point, four-trey, 7-for-11 first half, to go along with a 10-point, 5-for-5 jump by Williams.

As such, the Celtics carried a 66-41 lead into the break with five players scoring eight or more points, and the Hawks shooting at a significantly cooled 31.8% clip.

Beyond 14 each from Young and Capela in the first half, no other Hawk had more than four points against the Celtics’ double-up pressure from Wednesday night.

An early third-quarter run by the Hawks, including a Cam Reddish dunk that cut the Celtics lead to 70-51, triggered a Celtics timeout.

The Celtics came out of it with Tatum’s 16th point, but the Hawks continued to ramp up their scoring, until back-to-back 3-pointers from Brown got in the way.

Brown’s third trey in that sequence was good for an 87-60 lead with 4:13 left in the third.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3qD8a2w