Written Eric Freeman at YahooSports.com
The Atlanta Hawks entered this postseason ranked first in the NBA in points allowed per possession since December 15. Their first-round series with the Boston Celtics confirmed that defensive excellence over six games, with Thursday night’s clinching 104-92 win at TD Garden serving as perhaps the most impressive performance of the bunch.
Two days after dominating the Celtics during a pivotal Game 5 win in Atlanta, the Hawks controlled proceedings again, this time on the road. While the offense was slow to get going, Atlanta limited Boston to just 33 points and 27.6 percent shooting, including a 3-of-18 mark from beyond the arc. Those numbers improved considerably in the second half, but the Hawks countered with a much more explosive third quarter to enter rout territory. A late Celtics run helped to avoid an outright blowout and make the last few minutes marginally interesting, but this game belonged to the Hawks nearly the whole way.
Boston’s offensive struggles carried over from Game 5 and represented something like a worst-case scenario for a team so heavily dependent on All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas for scoring and shot creation. The path to shutting down the Celtics is well known, but the Hawks deserve lots of credit for executing it very well. That includes closing out on shooters and denial at the rim, success evidenced by 12 blocked shots (including 10 in the first three quarters).
At the same time, the Celtics’ own shooting struggles arguably contributed to their demise more than any influence from the Hawks. Teams don’t score fewer than 20 points in consecutive quarters due to defense alone, and on a certain level Boston didn’t score because players couldn’t make shots. It was a team-wide issue, which is how the Celtics missed 16 straight three-pointers from the 0:31 mark of the first quarter until the 1:46 mark of the third. That’s nearly a half of basketball without a conversion.
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