Written by Dan Devine at YahooSports.com
Sometimes all you need is six really good minutes.
The Atlanta Hawks roared out of the gates on Tuesday, taking the fight right to a Boston Celtics club playing without injured contributors Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk by racing out to a 24-3 lead with 5:28 remaining in the first quarter of Game 2 behind four quick 3-pointers from Kyle Korver.
That, for all intents and purposes, was the ballgame. Neither team consistently generated offense after that point, but the Hawks had already generated enough to give themselves a massive cushion. Atlanta never trailed, and Boston never got the lead under 10 points the rest of the way as the Hawks scored an ugly, grind-it-out 89-72 win to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series.
It was a truly regrettable way for the Celtics to celebrate such an auspicious day in team history.
Speaking of history, this is the first time in the long history of the Hawks and Celtics squaring off in the postseason — a history that includes 12 playoff matchups — in which Atlanta has held a 2-0 lead over the guys in green. It’s the 10th 2-0 lead overall in Hawks playoff history; they’ve never lost a series in which they’ve taken the first two games.
The Celtics have come back from an 0-2 hole before, but … well, it’s been a while
With apologies to a certain former Celtic coach: Bill Russell, John Havlicek and Sam Jones are not walking through that door.
Nor, it seems, will Bradley, who said he heard a pop after suffering a right hamstring strain during the fourth quarter of Atlanta’s 102-101 win, and who’s expected to be out for the remainder of the series. The 7-foot Olynyk, Boston’s best frontcourt shooter and a valuable reserve in coach Brad Stevens’ rotation, was also ruled out shortly before tipoff with a sore right shoulder, leaving the Celtics without two of their top six regular-season scorers against a Hawks team that finished the season second in the league in points allowed per possession.
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