CELTICS 88, HAWKS 85: Nipped at the wire again, but without a trace of fear

Wednesday’s game program featured a photo not of Joe Johnson shooting or Josh Smith swooping but, of all people doing all things, Zaza Pachulia scowling. And if you’ve been following this budding adversarial relationship, you know it made perfect sense.

The Hawks aren’t as good as the Celtics, but the Hawks aren’t scared of the Celtics. It began in the spring, when the No. 8 seed took three playoff games from the champs-to-be, and it continues apace. Twice now they’ve played in the new season, and twice Boston has escaped by the hair on Kevin Garnett’s chinny-chin-chin.

It was Garnett at whom Pachulia was glaring in the aforementioned cover photo, and their flare-up from a frenzied Game 4 resonates still. The Celtics haven’t gotten any worse —- if anything, they’re even better —- but the Hawks keep rising to meet them.

If not for a challenged Paul Pierce shot with 0.5 seconds remaining, the Hawks would have won in Boston last month, and if not for, of all people doing all things, Johnson missing a free throw with 2.7 seconds left Wednesday, the teams might still be playing. Said the Hawks’ Smith, speaking after the C’s had won by three: “We don’t have any fear of them. We treat them the same as anyone else coming in here.”

And you can tell the Celtics, who have lost only twice this season and not at all in 33 days, see the Hawks as a burgeoning threat, and you can tell the titlists haven’t quite gotten over the scare Atlanta threw into them. Asked if he had any reaction to the shot of Pachulia challenging him, Garnett said sniffily: “I don’t talk before the game.”

Then the playing began, and here they went again, the Hawks refusing to yield anything to Boston on this floor, nosing ahead in the second quarter and building a six-point lead inside the final seven minutes. But here the selectively reticent Garnett began making a statement. He scored on a hook. He hit from 17 feet. He fed Rajon Rondo from the low post.

The Hawks led by one inside the final minute, whereupon Garnett sank another hook. Then it was down to Johnson on the line with a chance to tie, and he missed. One big-time player made all manner of big-time plays. Another big-time player unaccountably missed.

“We drew up a play and had our best guy on the line,” said Mike Woodson, the Hawks’ coach. “You can’t ask for more… . When we’re in that position again, I’ll bet my money on our team.”

And maybe he should. The Celtics aren’t going away anytime soon, but the Hawks keep getting better. And they match up with the C’s in a way nobody else in the league does. Surely the reason only Rondo looks consistently comfortable against this team is because he, alone among Celtics, can match quick on quick.

The difference is that the Hawks aren’t yet skilled enough to make the elegantly simple plays Garnett makes as a matter of course. (“Anything to sell some tickets,” was Garnett’s postgame appraisal of the program cover.) The Celtics are a finely finished product; the Hawks are still finding their feet. They’re down 0-2 on the season series, but there are miles to go before either of these teams sleep.

Many around the NBA regard Cleveland and LeBron James as Boston’s biggest threat come the 2009 playoffs, but if I’m the Celtics I’m hoping the Hawks aren’t seeded No. 4, 5 or 8 in the East. That would almost surely put them on the Celtics’ side of the bracket, and the Hawks relish every chance they get at the Green. Given enough chances, they might just get it right.

mbradley@ajc.com