Never trailing after the first quarter, the Hawks (7-9) beat the Celtics, 110-99, Wednesday at State Farm Arena.
Next up, the Hawks will host the Hornets Saturday.
Below are some takeaways from the win:
1. The Hawks are doing what coach Nate McMillan intended after the team went 0-4 on its West Coast road trip: come home and make up some ground. They’ve won three straight games on their five-game homestand and move to 7-9. They’ve played three teams that they should have beaten, given the personnel available (a shorthanded Bucks team, a struggling Magic team and a shorthanded Celtics team), but those wins are important as any other.
2. Although the Celtics (playing without Jaylen Brown, out with a right hamstring strain) made some runs, the Hawks got an early lead and stayed in control of this game until the end. Their style of play presents some challenges for the Hawks, especially when they go small, but the Hawks adapted and when the Celtics (7-8) tried to limit Trae Young, he found open teammates. Young finished with 18 points and 11 assists for a double-double. John Collins added a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds and Clint Capela had nine points, 12 rebounds and three assists. The Hawks moved the ball well, with 28 assists total (Bogdan Bogdanovic added 12 points and six assists, behind Young’s game-high 11), limiting the Celtics to under 100 points even though Jayson Tatum had success individually (34 points, 5-for-12 from 3, nine rebounds, five assists).
“I thought we scrapped all night long,” McMillan said. “Boston is a really tough team to figure out. ... Defensively, the way they’re playing small-ball, it was a challenge for us, because we’re not really a switching team, but we had to make some reads and some adjustments out on the floor, and I thought our guys figured it out throughout the course of the game, to really get control and keep control of the game.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
3. Cam Reddish had another good game off the bench for the Hawks, playing under control and making heads-up plays, finishing with 19 points (8-for-14 field goals) and three steals, adding one assist, two rebounds and a block.
4. Kevin Huerter missed the second half of Monday’s win vs. the Magic with left hamstring tightness and was a game-time decision for Wednesday, but went 4-for-4 from 3-point range in his first nine minutes of play, so it didn’t slow him down. Huerter finished with 19 points (7-for-9 FG, 5-for-7 from 3), five rebounds, two assists and a steal. Huerter has started three consecutive games now, with De’Andre Hunter out due to a wrist injury (Hunter is expected to miss about eight weeks after having surgery Monday).
“It’s OK. ... It’s coming along,” Huerter said of his hamstring. “It might nag for a few weeks, but there’s nothing seriously wrong with it, just something we’ve got to monitor and obviously continue to get treatment for it.”
5. This win moves the Hawks to 6-1 at home this season, and increases their home regular-season win streak vs. Eastern Conference opponents to 13 (including last season), which is actually the longest active NBA streak. It’s also Atlanta’s longest streak since winning 15 straight in the 1996-97 season.
Stat of the game: 26.8% (what the Celtics shot from 3-point range, as players other than Tatum struggled from beyond the arc)
Star of the game: Reddish (gave the Hawks a boost with 19 points off the bench, adding three steals with scrappy defensive play)
Quotable: “These are games we know we have to win. We’ve still got a lot of work to do. We’ve still got ground to make up, obviously. We put ourselves in a hole in that West Coast trip so now we’ve got to take care of business at home against teams that we think are winnable, especially in this building.” (Huerter on the Hawks bouncing back with three straight home wins)
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