Celtics vs. Hawks: Score, Highlights, Reaction from 2017 Regular Season
Isaiah Thomas' fallaway jumper with 2.4 seconds left lifted the Boston Celtics to a 103-101 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night form Philips Arena.
Boston's triumph snapped the Hawks' seven-game winning streak, but it was dangerously close to being one of its most demoralizing losses of the season. The Celtics narrowly escaped blowing a 20-point third-quarter deficit after Atlanta came all the way back to tie the game with 25 seconds left.
Thomas scored a game-high 28 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter, as he continued to stake his claim as the league's best player in the fourth quarter.
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CSN New England showed his game-winner:
Friday marked the first time Celtics big man Al Horford returned to Atlanta as an opponent. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Hawks, garnering four All-Star appearances.
In his return, he posted 10 points, six rebounds and six assists on the night, but he wasn't received too well by his former fans either, via CSN New England:
Even during the first half, every time he touched the ball he was thoroughly booed by the Philips Arena crowd, which confused Jonathan Heeter of the Daily Press:
The Celtics didn't need Horford much down low early on, though, as they came out scorching from deep. In the game's first 8:30, the Celtics hit seven of their first 10 three-pointers, sparking a 22-3 run to take a 15-point lead in the first quarter, via the Celtics:
During that stretch, five different players, including Horford, connected from deep, as NBA.com/Stats took a look at the hot start:
Kelly Olynyk hit three of those three-pointers on his way to an 18-point first half in which he played 18 minutes.
He would end with a season-high 26 points off the bench, while the Celtics went 17-of-44 from three-point range on the night.
It was all the Hawks could stand to watch:
Atlanta managed to do something about it in the second quarter by ramping up its perimeter defense. While the Celtics hit just two threes, which included a stretch in which they missed 10 in a row, the Hawks trimmed their deficit to just four heading into halftime.
But the Celtics rediscovered their affluence from deep and reopened a double-digit lead.
Thomas also got Horford into the mix just to aggravate the Atlanta crowd further, via the Celtics:
With three minutes left in the third, Boston's lead swelled to 20 thanks to a 20-5 run that seemingly put the game away.
However, the Hawks battled back and shaved the game back down to single digits thanks to the play off the bench by Tim Hardaway Jr., who recorded 15 points in the fourth to spark the home team, via the Hawks:
Hardaway posted 23 points on the night, same as Paul Millsap.
A wide-open corner three from the newest Hawk, Mike Dunleavy, brought Atlanta to within two with 2:11 remaining in the game, and with 25 seconds left, Millsap knocked down a wide-open three to tie the game at 101, setting up Thomas' heroics.
While Atlanta's streak was broken, Boston has strung together six wins in its last seven games to improve to 24-15.
It's a dangerous game to live and die by the three-pointer at times, which was a reason why the Hawks were able to come back. But when there is a player like Thomas leading the Celtics in the fourth quarter, Boston is going to continue to be a difficult team to get by in the Eastern Conference.
Postgame Reaction
After Millsap's game-tying three, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens wanted to a call a timeout but Thomas wanted no part of it.
The Hawks relied on Kent Bazemore to try and stop Thomas, who broke down what he saw in the final seconds via Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe:
It provided a happy homecoming for Horford, who decided to block out the boos when speaking about the Hawks fans, via Himmelsbach:
More importantly for the Celtics though, beating one of the hottest teams in basketball on Friday night was confirmation that they can compete with almost any team in the league.
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