Jeff Teague and Al Horford — together again in the playoffs.
The point guard-and-center combination saved the Hawks down the stretch in a 102-101 victory over the Celtics on Saturday night in Game 1 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series at Philips Arena. The Hawks blew a 19-point first-half lead and trailed by three points late in the game.
The Hawks playoff veterans scored eight of the Hawks’ 10 points as they turned an 86-86 tie into a 96-91 lead with 1:33 left. The two points they didn’t score came on a Paul Millsap dunk after a Teague steal. Horford finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds, and Teague finished with 23 points and 12 assists.
“That is just me and him playing together for a while,” Teague said. “That 1-5 pick-and-roll, we were really good at. Throughout the whole game I tried to get things going and feed the big guy.”
Horford grabbed a huge rebound with 36 seconds left and the Hawks leading 96-93, after the Celtics’ Evan Turner missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer. Kent Bazemore was fouled after the rebound and made two free throws. Teague made three free throws in the final 16 seconds.
Bazemore added 23 points for the Hawks, including three free throws in the final 46 seconds. Millsap and Mike Scott each scored 14 points.
Isaiah Thomas led the Celtics with 27 points, 21 in the second half, including a 3-pointer with .4 seconds left to make it even closer. Avery Bradley suffered hamstring injury in the fourth quarter that could potentially keep him out of the rest of the series.
“Honestly, nobody really said anything,” Horford said of the Hawks’ huddle after the Celtics took the lead. “We just went out there and got stops when we needed to. At least I don’t recall anybody saying anything. You don’t panic. You stick with it. You keep playing the game. They hits some tough, tough 3’s. We just kept playing and once we got the lead at the end we were able to hold on to it.”
The Hawks jumped on the Celtics from the start. They took a 9-2 lead minutes into the game, forcing the Celtics to call a timeout after a 1-of-7 shooting start.
Things got worse.
The Hawks led 30-19 at the end of the first quarter as they shot 46 percent from the field. The Celtics shot just 27 percent, including a woeful 1-of-9 from 3-point range.
Things got even worse.
The Hawks led 51-34 at the end of the first half as they shot 44 percent in the first two quarters and led by as many as 19 points. The Celtics shot 23 percent, including 2-of-16 from 3-point range. The Celtics’ starters were a combined 9-of-38 from the field.
The Hawks forced the Celtics to be a jump-shooting team in the first half. They held a 26-8 advantage in points in the paint. That included the Hawks starting 12-0 in the statistical category, as the Celtics didn’t get their first points inside until 4:50 remained in the first quarter.
In their regular-season win last week, the Hawks held the Celtics to 36 second-half points, for a combined 70 in two halves.
It wasn’t over — not by a long shot.
The Celtics got as close as five points in the third quarter as they outscored the Hawks 31-19. The Hawks were 5-of-20 from the field in the quarter. The Hawks took a 72-65 lead into the final quarter.
The Celtics completely erased their 19-point deficit and took their first lead of the game, 83-80 with 6:42 left, with 49-29 run that began at the start of the third quarter.
That set up the back-and-forth late-game dramatics.
The Hawks had an advantage over the Celtics with Horford and Millsap in winning three of the four regular-season meetings.
“It’s the playoffs,” Millsap said before the game. “Who knows what the advantage is? They have some good post players down there. It’s not given to us. We still have to go out there and make something happen.”
Game 2 of the series will be Tuesday in Atlanta.
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