(The Hawks-Celtics Game 8 battle Wednesday did a jaw-dropping 6.73 for the last quarter hour, 10:15 to 10:30, and the game ended with just under 4 (3.9) overall, to be adjusted later since the rating times are pre-set and the game ran long - per a celebrated longtime announcer friend of mine who knows about these things. A 6.7 rating for even a piece of a Hawks game in November, or any other time, is off the charts. “Astronomical,” to borrow his word. Last season’s playoff games came in at 2.)

The rematch between last year’s playoff combatants drew record numbers in Beantown as well.

My man Weez-E sent me a link from Boston this morning that reads like this:

“A year ago a game between the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks was hardly worth a second look. On Wednesday night, the telecast of the postseason rematch was the highest rated regular season game in Comcast SportsNet history.

The final half hour, which included Paul Pierce’s game-winning heroics, was the top rated program on Boston television, beating out network hits such as House and Law & Order. The game drew an estimated 245,000 households in New England and 163,000 in the Boston market alone.”

And to think that this game couldn’t find its way onto the NBA’s national TV schedule … sad.

I hate to dwell on the past, but the best rivalry going right now in the Eastern Conference isn’t the Piston-Cavaliers or Celtics-Pistons. It’s these Hawks and Celtics.

WHAT RIVALRY?: Of course, Celtics superstar Kevin Garnett doesn’t agree with that sentiment. Even while praising the Hawks, he denounced their current drama as a rivalry.

“It’s definitely entertaining, two teams playing hard,” Garnett told reporters after the game. “You definitely see the growth in that team. They have some key additions. Mo Evans played hard for them. Flip Murray is a big addition for them. It gives them a lot more depth. Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby have some other scorers that can come in. Like Paul said, we knew this wasn’t going to be an easy game. They weren’t undefeated for any other reason. The thing that sticks out is that they’re a lot more defensively sound than they were a year ago. It’s entertaining but I wouldn’t necessarily call it a rivalry.”

Uh, whatever you say KG. I don’t know what constitutes a rivalry in South Carolina or Chicago (KG claims both), but where I’m from (Grand Rapids, MI) what’s gone on between the Hawks and Celtics the past seven months is the definition of a rivalry.

EYES ON THE PRIZE: Not that the Hawks need to spend any more time worrying about the Celtics with a back-to-back trap set against New Jersey standing between them and their seventh and potentially eighth wins of the season.

While studying the Hawks’ schedule during the summer, I came up with a plan that I felt would give them the best chance to chase their playoff goals.

With 10 of their first 16 games on the road, it seems reasonable that the Hawks would need to reach eight wins as quickly as possible to keep themselves in a good position heading into a December stretch that will see them play eight straight home games (a veritable gold mine for a good team hoping to build up its war chest for the second half of the season).

The Hawks are closer to that goal than I predicted they’d be just seven games in. So there is a real opportunity to fortify their position right now with another strong burst with three back-to-back sets between now and next Saturday.

“All we’re worried about is Jersey for the next [48 hours],” Marvin Williams said in reference to tonight’s game at Izod Center and Saturday’s return tilt at Philips Arena. “We don’t see the Celtics again until next month, so we’ll worry about them then. Right now, we’re locked in on Jersey and then we’ll just keep going from there.”

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