A look inside the Hawks’ 111-103 Game 3 loss to the Celtics Friday night:
Here are the key players and five observations on the game:
Three key players
Isaiah Thomas: The Celtics point guard scored a career high 42 points, including 16 in the first quarter.
Evan Turner: After being inserted into the starting lineup at shooting guard, Turner had 17 points, including seven in the fourth quarter when he and Thomas combined for 25 of the Celtics' 32 points.
Jeff Teague: The Hawks point guard continues to be a force as he finished with 23 points. For the series, Teague has averaged 19.6 points.
Five observations
1. Do doubting Thomas
Stopping Isaiah Thomas, especially in the paint, has been a key for the Hawks in the series. They did a pretty good job in the first two games. In Game 3, the Celtics point guard got away from them – in a big way. Thomas scored a career-high 42 points on 12 of 24 shooting, including five 3-pointers. He had just one assist as he looked to score regularly and played some off the ball. Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer was most troubled with the 15 free-throw attempts (13 makes). “We got to do a better job of keeping him off the free throw line,” Budenholzer said. “Maybe more disciplined on pump fakes. Thirteen is a lot, 15 total free throws and I think he earned them. The 3’s, he had five 3’s, but some of them were tough, coming off pin-downs, coming off screens. He had a heck of a night. Can we do better? Yes. But the free throws that’s a big area of concern.”
2. Millsap continues to struggle
Paul Millsap had just eight points on 3 of 9 shooting. It was his second non double-digit scoring game from the forward who led the Hawks with a regular-season average of 17 points per game. In the three games this series, Millsap had just 26 points on 10 of 32 shooting. He appeared to remain an emphasis of the Celtics.
3. Hawks’ huge third quarter
The Hawks appeared in big trouble when the Celtics scored the first seven points of the third quarter to push their lead to 19 points, 64-45. Not the way the Hawks wanted to start the after trailing by as many as 20 points in the first half. The Celtics scored just 15 points the rest of the quarter. The Hawks won the period 33-22 to get back in the game. The Hawks briefly led 78-77 before Jonas Jerebko got the ball from Paul Millsap and scored with 0.1 seconds left. Kent Bazemore had eight points and Teague had seven points in the quarter.
4. First punch
The Celtics delivered the first punch – and it was a haymaker. Aided by a raucous home crowd, the Celtics jumped out on the Hawks early. They led by as many as 17 points, 37-20, by the end of the first quarter as they shot 57.1 percent (12 of 21) from the field, including 5 of 10 from 3-point range. The Hawks shot 30 percent (6 of 20) from the field, including 1 of 10 from 3-point range. The Celtics would push their lead to 20 points, 49-29, midway through the second quarter. The Hawks used a 16-5 run to cut their deficit to nine points. The Celtics scored the last three points of the quarter to take a 57-45 lead into intermission. The shooting percentages closed as the Celtics held a 45.5 to 41.2 percent advantage. The Hawks’ 2 of 17 shooting from 3-point range was key.
5. Schroder Celtics’ new villain
Dennis Schroder and Thomas got mixed up for some heated words in the first quarter. Television cameras showed Thomas clearly slapped Schroder in the head as the two ran down court. The NBA will likely review the play. Later in the quarter, the two got mixed up after Schroder was called for a foul on Thomas with 1:27 left in the opening period. The players had to be separated and after referees reviewed the incident double technical fouls were issued. From that point on the boisterous Boston crowd booed Schroder each time he touched the ball. The Hawks-Celtics rivalry always seems to have such moments whether it was Dominique Wilkins and Larry Bird or Zaza Pachulia and Kevin Garnett. Schroder, who was questionable with a left ankle sprain, scored 20 points.
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