Boston —- A strange series saw a return to relative normalcy Wednesday night. The NBA's best team played like the NBA's best team. The Hawks acted as if they weren't sure they deserved to be tied with the NBA's best team after four playoff games, and now they aren't.

Maybe asking the Hawks to beat Boston three times in five days was too much, but the underdogs did nothing to make Games 3 and 4 seem a new world order. In Game 5 they were outscored by 17 baskets and beaten by 25 points. They weren't the fearless bunch we saw in Philips Arena; for reasons unclear, they seemed willing to counterpunch.

The Celtics played as if their professional lives were on the line, which they pretty much were. A column in the tabloid Boston Herald ran under this headline: "Celtics Face Gag Order: On Brink Of Biggest Collapse In Hub History." (And this in the city of Bucky Dent and Bill Buckner.)

"They really got after us defensively tonight," said Hawks coach Mike Woodson, and that should have come as no shock after the torch job Joe Johnson and Josh Smith did in the fourth quarter of Game 4. What was surprising was how pliant the Hawks were: They were outrebounded 19-9 over the first 18 minutes, and rebounds are a function of hustle.

"I felt like we were in it for most of the game," Al Horford said, but they really weren't. They trailed by 15 at the half, a deeper hole than they'd dug in Game 1 or 2 here. (Fun with numbers: After 12 postseason quarters in TD Banknorth Garden, the Hawks have yet to outscore their hosts once.)

"They got a lot of loose balls," said Horford, and here the astute rookie was on to something. "That set the momentum early."

The Celtics needed Game 5 and acted accordingly. The Hawks acted content to head home down 3-2, and they could well take Game 6 in Philips Arena. But to win the series they'll have to win here, and given the state of Boston's psyche, this might have been their best shot.

Then again, who really knows anything with this odd crew? At a time when a coach might be expected to accentuate the positive, Woodson went glum. In his pregame briefing, he told the assembled media: "At the end of the season, if I'm the coach ..."

This led the assembled media to ask if events of the past few days mightn't solidify his job. Said Woodson: "I don't think this series has anything to do with it. You guys think this team should be the greatest thing since sliced bread, and I don't see it this way. We've got some good pieces, but we're young."

The man can, as we know, say some strange things, but this was weird even by Woody standards. Shouldn't a coach be talking up his Young Team at such a time? Shouldn't he be saying something like, "We're tied with these guys after four games, and we're in it to win it"?

Instead he said this: "We're a ways away, but we're not far away. We want to get to 50 wins and 55 and move up in the standings, and maybe then we'll have a chance at the homecourt [advantage]."

Well, maybe someday. But the lesson of Games 3 and 4 was that a roster gifted enough to face down the Celtics twice in three days shouldn't have been 37-45 to begin with. Then the Hawks achieve something at blessed last, and their coach seizes on this merry occasion to say, "We're a ways away." Amazing.

Thus does the screwball series return to Atlanta, the Hawks facing elimination. "Our confidence level hasn't broken down a bit," Smith said. And then: "There's still not any pressure on us."

Maybe they'll give themselves a chance Friday night, same as they did in Games 3 and 4. We saw what happened then. In Game 5 we saw nothing even close.

mbradley@ajc.com

On ajc.com/sports: Go online to blog about the Hawks' performance in Game 5 of their NBA playoffs series.