How's that for a menacing gesture?

The Hawks barely made the playoff field, sporting the fewest wins of any team in the 16-team field.

And now they don't want to go away quietly.

Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson won't allow it.

He and Josh Smith willed the Hawks to a stunning 97-92 Game 4 win over top-seeded Boston in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series before a rowdy sellout crowd of 20,016 Monday night at Philips Arena. The two combined to score all 32 points in the fourth quarter as the Hawks pulled even in the series at 2-2 with Game 5 Wednesday in Boston.

Johnson scored 20 of his career playoff-high 35 points in the fourth quarter as the Hawks overcame a 10-point deficit to win for the second straight night before a home crowd that went without playoff basketball for nine years.

The Hawks also guaranteed there will be at least one more playoff game here this season by winning Monday. Game 6 will be here Friday night.

"It's unbelievable," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "Joe Johnson willed us to win. He was hot and we continued to get him the ball."

Johnson said he took his fourth-quarter instructions directly from Woodson, and went to work.

"He said I had to carry the load," said Johnson, who started the fourth with a 3-pointer and finished it with two free throws with 14.3 seconds to play for a 95-89 Hawks lead. "Mike [Bibby] was setting picks and I continued to take what the defense gave me. They were going to stay with Mike and not let him get an open shot and I was just trying to get around my guy to make plays."

Smith's free throws with 2.6 seconds to play sealed the win for the Hawks, who have turned the league upside down in just three short days.

"People were acting like we were supposed to be some charity case but we felt all along that we belonged," said Smith, who finished with 28 points, 12 in the fourth quarter, besting his previous career playoff high of 27 points from Saturday's Game 3 win over the Celtics. "They bested us in [Games 1 and 2 in] Boston. We can't erase that. But this is a series now, a real series."

Thanks to the fourth quarter heroics of the Hawks' leading scorers; Smith also tied set the franchise record Monday with seven blocks.

"That was just plain crazy what those two did in the fourth quarter," Marvin Williams said. "They did it all. If it wasn't Joe, it was Josh. Every game we play the defense is designed to stop Joe and they couldn't do it. Not this time."

The Celtics didn't get much from anyone other than their Big Three of Kevin Garnett (20 points), Paul Pierce (18) and Ray Allen (21) and second-year point guard Rajon Rondo (14 points and 12 assists).

But they couldn't keep up with Johnson and Smith, who took all 15 of the Hawks' shots in the fourth quarter.

It was only fitting that they started the Hawks' final push after tying the game up with just over five minutes to play.

The Hawks took an 84-79 lead with 4:33 to play on back-to-back jumpers from Smith and Johnson — Smith's was a spot up 20-footer and Johnson's a nasty step-back 3-pointer over Leon Powe, who fell to the ground after the two of them got tangled.

"It was like that the whole way. Joe carried us on his back," said Bibby, who scored all 18 of his points in the first half. "That has to go up there with the top performances in playoff history. That [expletive] was going crazy, man. He was going crazy."

Crazy was the second quarter, when a wild fracas between Garnett and Hawks reserve center Zaza Pachulia resulted in four technical fouls being called on players and an official's stoppage of play to review a nose-to-nose sequence that resulted in players and coaches from both teams breaking up the action.

Pachulia, Garnett, Johnson and Celtics reserve point guard Sam Cassell all earned technical fouls for their efforts.

But the tone for the rest of the game was set.

"They hit us in the mouth early," Johnson said of the Hawks' 16-3 first quarter deficit. "And they did it again later. But we hit back at the end."