Josh Smith had Boston's fair-weather fans saying, "Who?!" all night long.
The young Hawk came up with 27 points and frustrated the Celtics on the defensive end. None of this could have been done without Mike Bibby deciding to show up ready to play for the first time in the series.
All night, the Celtics parted like the Red Sea giving open looks for layups and dunks to Smith, Johnson, and Horford.
Bibby's jump shot still looked uglier than Zaza Pachulia, but it was the fact that he had eight assists and only two turnovers which made him a factor all night.
At times, the Celtics looked bad... the rest of the time, they were downright awful. A casual fan might see that Garnett put up a 32-10 performance and assume it was a good night for him and his team.
Unfortunately, KG's no longer on the Timberwolves, and a night with numbers like that suggests a breakdown of the Celtics' usual unselfish ball movement.
- B/R Ticket Guide
Doc Rivers mismanaged his time outs and failed to use them properly to slow a Hawks run in the end of the third quarter where the Celtics went without a field goal for over six minutes.
Bibby must be pleased now that even those "fair weather fans" in Boston know who Josh Smith and most of the Hawks starters are.
Unfortunately, he's still on the youngest squad in the NBA and Atlanta celebrated their first playoff victory since 1999 as if it was... well, their first playoff victory since 1999.
Playing poor team defense and allowing Smith open paths to the basket, gave Smith the opportunity to teach the Celtics a lesson.
Unfortunately for Smith, who taunted Paul Pierce and called him a "bitch," in the waning seconds, Game Four will be his turn to be taught a thing or two.
I was excited to see that the refs completely missed and/or ignored the blatant technical-foul offense by Josh Smith because that can mean only one thing...
"The Truth" is coming out Monday night with a severe chip on his shoulder. The Celtics lost a game they should have won.
It took Brian Scalabrine and other members of the bench to keep Paul Pierce from chasing down Horford and putting a hurt on him in front of the (barely) sellout crowd in Atlanta.
Instead, Monday night look for flashes of the old Pierce. Game Four will be the most physical meeting of the series to date, and the Truth is going to come out with both guns blazing.
This is why I watch this team, why I love the playoffs, and why I just bought tickets to Game Five!
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8 months ago
Nice. Have fun at game five. I'm pretty sure you'll be watching them clinch.
8 months ago
It was Al Horford, not Smith, taunting Pierce at the end of the game. Pierce stalking Horford back to the Hawks bench while Brian Scalabrine chased him down was hilarious to see. Wouldn't be surprised to see Pierce go off for 40 in Game 4.
8 months ago
And Horford would demolish Pierce in a fistfight...not that it matters, Smith probably would too though. Celtics are obviously the better team but they def deserved that loss.They missed some good looks. Atlanta turned up the heat defensively, its the Nba so anything can happen...If Atlanta clicks right they have a scary starting 5 but they dont mesh well yet. Look at Detroit, Philly is the better team, by a longshot..but Philly's playing their hearts out on every possession. Good Article
from 8 months ago
Paul Pierce would be albe to hold his own and dominate Horford and Smith simply because he was born in Oakland, CA. I bet you didn't know that.
8 months ago
Scott,
You're totally right, haha I was even thinking that when I was writing it, thanks. I'll fix it.
8 months ago
Good to see the Hawks beat the Celtics. No matter what happens now, they've already exceeded expectations by not allowing the Celtics to sweep them.
from 8 months ago
I couldn't agree more Jackie. I think the Hawks have proven a lot of people wrong. The Western Conference Whiners want to talk about records, but Atlanta has proven themselves a team that will fight until the bitter end despite their age and lack of experience. Teams who have complained about this disparity, Dallas for example, should probably worry more about what's going on in the West than complaining about the Eastern Conference.
I'm happy to see the Hawks take one from my Celtics because it boosts the young team's outlook for the future and also (presumably) will serve as a wake-up call to Boston so it can gear up for the rest of the series and its playoff run.
Personally, I don't see how the Celtics don't let Paul Pierce drop at least 14 in the 4th quarter. I think it's too short-sighted for a team with a goal of winning the championship to play out of their game in the name of revenge for 48 minutes. However, I believe Doc will use Horford's immature taunt as a way to let Paul get hot early on and give his teammates a boost before switching back to the ball-movement which has won the team countless games.
8 months ago
i can smell a 8 seed upset
from 8 months ago
Pirate,
You're lucky I know you, some other people might think you're as dumb as Zaza Pachulia looks. Seriously though, you should have dropped the $18 to get courtside at Philly to watch them scare the hell out of Detroit.
8 months ago
anyone who say games 3 and 4 knows what was going on. the nba did not want a sweep, so they assigned violet plamer and bennet salvadore to game 3, and eddie f. rush to game 4. two of the worst officiated games of all time. well done, NBA. who cares about a level playing field? We have ratings and TV sponsors to think of!
pachulia, smith, horford go over the back all night long. johnson and bibby hold off the defender whenever they dribble. the games were a joke.
i have to give atlanta credit tonight though. their shot clock worked for the entire game.
well done, nba. no wonder no one watches this crappy league.
The NBA. Where bad officiating happens.
from 8 months ago
haha I didn't want to sound like a poor loser, but I have to say there's been some pretty one-sided officiating all series, not just in game 3 and 4. The series is headed back to Boston, though, and even the NBA and it's hired goons can't stop the NBA's best team in its own house.
8 months ago
You must be one of those fairweather fans. If you don't know who Josh Smith is, you haven't been watching the NBA for the last 4 years.
8 months ago
Poor losers.
Are you really going to attribute the fact that the Hawks came back from 10+ point deficits twice in the same game to poor officiating? Being upset about no-calls in the play-off is whining plain and simple. Everybody knows it's going to be rough going in. If you're not prepared for it, stay home. There's a big difference between playing tough, physical basketball and taking cheap shots after the whistle because you can't handle the defensive pressure like Kevin Garnett, whose lucky he didn't get tossed by the ref (since you want to get all up in arms over the "one-sided' officiating) or beat up by the big Russian guy whose face kept getting in the way of his elbow.
What I saw the last two nights was a cocky, over-confident team plainly not used to losing come apart at the seams every time they ran into a little resistance. Which sort of begs the question, are the Boston Celtics this years New England Patriots? Great in the regular season but apply a little pressure in the post and they wilt like fresh spinach hitting a hot saute pan?
They still have a good chance to pull out this series in 7 games, since (and only since) they have home court advantage, but the aura of invincibility is gone and the pressures plainly on them going back to Boston. They haven't handled it well so far, so who knows? Maybe the Hawks will pull off a stunner.
The best part of this series for me was watching KG's ugly, trash-talking mug at a loss for words at the end of the game. That should be an American Express commercial. Playoff tickets, $70.00. Kevin Garnett not talking, priceless.
8 months ago
Poor losers.
Are you really going to attribute the fact that the Hawks came back from 10+ point deficits twice in the same game to poor officiating? Being upset about no-calls in the play-off is whining plain and simple. Everybody knows it's going to be rough going in. If you're not prepared for it, stay home. There's a big difference between playing tough, physical basketball and taking cheap shots after the whistle because you can't handle the defensive pressure like Kevin Garnett, whose lucky he didn't get tossed by the ref (since you want to get all up in arms over the "one-sided' officiating) or beat up by the big Russian guy whose face kept getting in the way of his elbow.
What I saw the last two nights was a cocky, over-confident team plainly not used to losing come apart at the seams every time they ran into a little resistance from a team that lost 30 more games in the regular season . Which sort of begs the question, are the Boston Celtics this years New England Patriots? Great in the regular season but apply a little pressure in the post and they wilt like fresh spinach hitting a hot saute pan?
They still have a good chance to pull out this series in 7 games, since (and only since) they have home court advantage, but the aura of invincibility is gone for good and the pressures plainly on them going back to Boston. They haven't handled it well so far, so who knows? Maybe the Hawks will pull off a stunner.
The best part of this series for me was watching KG's ugly, trash-talking mug at a loss for words at the end of the game. That should be an American Express commercial. Playoff tickets, $70.00. Kevin Garnett not talking, priceless.
from 8 months ago
haha Sorry Jeff two things:
1) You obviously didn't watch the games...
2) Playoff tickets are not $70 bucks in Boston.
The Hawks are cute... for a WNBA team haha
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