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Before Wednesday night’s Atlanta Hawks-Boston Celtics game, Paul Pierce mentioned bringing the “A game” whenever they came to play the Hawks...

Atlanta-Boston: Hawks Fall Short Again, Rivalry With Celtics Still In Question

by daniel cox (Senior Writer)

24

194 reads

Opinion

December 18, 2008


Before Wednesday night’s Atlanta Hawks-Boston Celtics game, Paul Pierce mentioned bringing the “A game” whenever they came to play the Hawks.

In last season’s playoffs, the up-start Hawks pushed the Celtics series to seven games, winning all three games at home.

It was enough to get Atlanta excited about its Hawks again and there began whispers of the r-word—“rivalry.”

Some of the rivalry talk harks back to the Hawks’ original glory days, featuring Dominique Wilkins and current Celtics head coach, Doc Rivers.

The most memorable of all Hawks-Celtics 80’s playoff showdowns came in 1988. Games six and seven featured thrillers that came down to the wire and showcased the team’s biggest stars—Wilkins and the Celtics’ Larry Bird.

Game seven was concluded with Wilkins on the line, down by three, with five seconds remaining. The strategy was to make the first free-throw, miss the second, come down with the rebound, shoot and score, tie, and force overtime.

It didn’t happen that way and the Hawks were sent packing.

After the thrilling Hawks-Celtics game earlier this season, which saw Paul Pierce hit a jump shot with .5 seconds remaining to give the Celtics the one-point win, the rivalry talk started up again.

Surely Dec. 17 was marked in red in the Hawks’ locker room since that game. It proved to be another memorable game, but unfortunately for the Hawks, concluded the same way.

The Celtics entered the game having won 15 straight. The Hawks, after spending a week on the road, had won two straight at home—one against the East’s other hottest team, the Cavaliers, and the other against one of the league’s worst teams, a title arguably held by Atlanta not too long ago, the Charlotte Bobcats

With two seconds remaining, Joe Johnson toed the free-throw line for an opportunity to tie the game at 86. The 82 percent free-throw shooter was expected to make both. He missed the second and Kevin Garnett came down with the rebound, in a conclusion oddly similar to that Game seven in 1988.

These Hawks know nothing of that rivalry. Joe Johnson was eight years old at the time. Josh Smith, Atlanta’s do-it-all man and Atlanta native, was just two years old.

However, Atlanta was unable to come away with wins against the Celtics.

And that raises the age-old question: If a team can’t beat its “rival,” is it really a “rivalry” and does anyone, other than the loser, really care?

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24 comments Last one added 6 months ago — Leave a Comment

  1. EJ Claudio 6 months ago

    Pretty nice article.

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  2. Jamaal Foster 6 months ago

    I'm going to disagree with "the Big Ticket". you don't have to win sometims to be a rivalry. Just look at college football. Texas beats Texas A&M all the time, OSU has quite a run going against the bUMs. And until this past november Aubrn owned 'Bama, UGA owned GTech, and Tuskegee owned ASU. .. ****You've given me an article idea....

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    • daniel cox 6 months ago

      jamaal, heh...glad i could help. yeah, i think that was kg's way of taking a little shot. i think i agree with you, to a point. college football is a little bit different though. those rivalries go back years and years and years, and often have a lot of historical ties as well. who's texas' bigger rivalry: a&m or oklahoma? you know what i mean?

      i think this boston-atlanta thing has some meat to it. i look forward to those last two matchups this season. and man, if they meet in the playoffs again this year, watch out...

      thanks for reading!

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  3. Dan Callagy 6 months ago

    nice article
    glad to see someone not from boston writing about them

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    • daniel cox 6 months ago

      dan, well..it relates to atlanta, so it's in my subject area. it may be a while before i write about them again. but who knows. been thinking about doing some things with the nba as a whole, so it may be sooner rather than later after all.

      thanks for reading!

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  4. D.Michael Lee 6 months ago

    Good Article Daniel!

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  5. Blake Gibbs 6 months ago

    AWESOME article man...

    I think it is definately a rivalry now. Garnett said one of the teams has to win for it to be considered a rilvary...didn't the hawks win 3 games in the playoffs against them? The celtics know it is turning into a rivalry, the fact they made those comments proves it.

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    • daniel cox 6 months ago

      blake, i think you make a pretty good point. that was kind of the one i was trying to make too. the comments, the way they played...it sounded/looked like it meant a little more than the typical regular season game.

      thanks for reading, i appreciate it!

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  6. Waleed Ershad 6 months ago

    Good article! Hopefully we can see them face off in the playoffs. Maybe in the second or third round since it's safe to say Atlanta isn't gonna be the 8th seed again.

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    • daniel cox 6 months ago

      waleed, i dunno. you may be right. they're looking pretty decent right now. a second round matchup would be mighty fine. i think it would reach official rivalry status if they knocked them out...whoo man, that'd be something!

      thanks for reading!

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  7. Joel Creager 6 months ago

    It is the red headed stepchild of rivalries, but it will grow up into something beautiful.

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    • daniel cox 6 months ago

      nuck, (i still chuckle every time i see that name--nice job!)

      that's a good way to put it. i think the celtics may get old real quick though. rondo's gonna be around a while. but kg's only got a few more years left in him. they may be good enough to pass the baton though. atlanta's a team on the rise. i'd love to see it develop into something beautiful. atlanta's a basketball town at its heart. they'd love to see this team continue to do well. and a hated rivalry is always good for the fans.

      thanks for reading!

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  8. John Lorge 6 months ago

    Yeah I was a little taken back when people started calling this a new rivalry. Sure the players are new but in the 80s these teams had one of the best rivalries in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics are better right now, but the Hawks are NOT afraid of them.

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    • daniel cox 6 months ago

      john, yeah, i think that much is evident. if anything, they play up to the celtics. like rondo said, if they played every game like that, they'd be top-tier. and you're right, in the 80's, these two teams regularly went at it. i'd love to see it get back to that point.

      thanks for reading!

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  9. Rojo Grande 6 months ago

    I think one of the definitive elements of a true rivalry is mutual respect. Another is contempt.
    Not sure its to that level yet.

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    • daniel cox 6 months ago

      rojo, well said. i think the hawks respect the celtics. not so sure if the celtics respect the hawks. a handful more wins and we'll see. contempt could take years to build. however...the hawks knock them out of the playoffs...and contempt could be earned quickly.

      thanks for reading!

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  10. Yama Hazheer 6 months ago

    It was a great game. I love their rivalry, but we have to see if they can keep up with Boston anymore.

    Good read.

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    • daniel cox 6 months ago

      yama, exactly. if they can show that they can play on their level consistently, not just when they play the celtics, that'd go a long way towards developing something.

      thanks for the comments.

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  11. Bryn Swartz 6 months ago

    I've watched about 50 basketball games in my 19 years. Watched this game...

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  12. andrew kafoury 6 months ago

    Great article on the Hawks V. Celtis of 2008-2009.

    I thought their playoff battle last year SHOCKED Boston because they did not know what hit them in Atlanta. My guess is that the arena was far louder than the Laker's arena, probably the loudest arena they had in the playoffs PERIOD.

    I am not sure if I would call it a rivalry, but not because one team has not beaten the other in a playoff series. If that were the case, there would be barely any rivalries. I think its more like one team (Hawks) HATES the other and are desperately trying to KILL the Celtics.

    I saw this show on the Discovery Channel where this guy was all alone in the North Pole, watching some research station, and a polar bear tried to get him. He ZAPPED the polar bear with a can of mace right to its face, and that polar bear ran away in defeat. But for WEEKS the polar bear waited only a few yards away, watching the man. It remembered the loss, and it wanted to KILL the guy.

    Not just to eat mind you, no, this kill was personal.

    I think the Hawks, literally, want to KILL the Celtics. And the Celtics are just trying to deal with an enemy that HATES them.

    I do not think the Celtics HATE the Hawks as much as the Hawks HATE the Celtics.

    As a Blazer fan...I HATE LA. I HATE THEM! HATE THEM!! HATE THEM!!!

    Does that make it a rivarly...?

    Or were my Blazers just pesky flies getting swatted away?

    I will watch all of the Celtics-Hawks games because they are fun to watch, and I hope the Hawks DO defeat Boston in a playoff series. Not years from now, NOW.

    That would be one of the greatest NBA stories of all time. Better than the Warrior mugging the Mavs.

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    • daniel cox 6 months ago

      andrew, that is a really great comparison. so sound. and i think you're right. but on the flip side, like i mention in the article, you can't argue with the way boston has played when they've faced atlanta. a few more antics and such. but maybe they just feel the intensity atlanta is bringing to the game and rise to it. it certainly makes for compelling basketball. and it is a great story--the hawks are putting together a nice little run here.

      thanks for the comments. they were so well thought out. i really appreciate that.

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