Boston — The Hawks showed up at TD Banknorth Garden Sunday with a chance to make history. They did just that, but for all the wrong reasons.

An epic Game 7 battle with the Boston Celtics quickly turned into a rout of epic proportions and the Celtics ran away with 99-65 win to clinch this first-round playoff series and end the Hawks' dream playoff run.

The 34-point loss was the fourth biggest Game 7 loss in NBA playoff history and tied for the fourth worst playoff defeat in Hawks' history. The Hawks also set playoff futility marks for points in a quarter (10 in the second) and a half (26 in the first half).

The Celtics move on to the Eastern Conference semifinals to play Cleveland. The Hawks will spend today moving out of their locker room for the summer.

"I thought we'd come into this game knowing what was at stake and knowing we had a chance to make history and move on to the next round," Hawks captain and All-Star Joe Johnson said. "I thought we'd come out with a lot more enthusiasm and a lot more discipline and we didn't do any of that. We came out so lethargic. We had no continuity on offense. It was a joke, man."

Was it ever.

Any memory of the Hawks' hair-raising, come-from-behind Game 6 win Friday in Atlanta, or the other two home wins before raucous sellout crowds, was erased by one of the most disastrous first-half performances in franchise history.

Offensively the Hawks were a discombobulated mess, making just 10 of their 38 shots from the floor while also turning the ball over 10 times, which the Celtics turned into 15 points.

They weren't any better defensively, as the Celtics Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Kendrick Perkins combined to outscore them at halftime 28-26.

"We knew it was going to be tough to come up here and win a Game 7, but we didn't even give ourselves a chance," said Hawks forward Marvin Williams, who was ejected early in the third quarter for a flagrant 2 foul on Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo. "Those dudes out scrapped us, they outscored us and they out defended us. Anything you can do in a basketball game from a player's perspective, they did it. You can take all the X's and O's and coaching stuff out of it and the bottom line is this, their five [guys] killed our five guys, no matter who was on the court."

Johnson was the only Hawks regular to reach double figures in scoring (16 points) and he was just 5-for-17 from the floor. Salim Stoudamire scored 10 points off the bench in the second half when the game was already decided.

The Celtics' lead had ballooned to as many as 38 points. The only thing worth paying attention to after halftime were the colorful chants being sung by the sellout crowd of 18,624 — the usual "Where's Mike Bibby?" chorus was interrupted by "U-S-A" whenever Zaza Pachulia touched the ball.

It was a crushing end to what had become a magical week for the Hawks, who won three games in seven, staving off elimination Friday, to push this series to places no one expected.

But the Hawks inability to compete with the Celtics on their home floor, all of their four losses here were by 19 or more points, was the deciding factor in this series.

"We're so inexperienced and we showed that every game in Boston," Johnson said. "We had no chance of winning games here. None. I guess some of these guys thought we were just going to be able to come out and play hard and have fun. There's more to it than that.

"Four games here and we got run ragged all four times. You would think in Game 7 you would have a [expletive] clue. We didn't have a clue as to what was going on out there."

As dejected as his team was after the game, Hawks coach Mike Woodson refused to pile dirt on their miraculous postseason run.

He praised his team, the youngest in the league at the end of the regular season and the last one to make the 16-team playoff field, for pushing the top-seeded Celtics to the brink.

I'm happy about this season," Woodson said. "We had a goal and we got into the playoffs. It wasn't pretty at times. But you have to give yourself the opportunity if you want a chance.

"We pushed this team, which [Celtics coach] Doc [Rivers] has done a great job getting them to where they are. They have three All-Stars and a great supporting cast. We battled them to the end but just didn't get it done."