In Game 5 of a tied series, you didn’t expect Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband to make consecutive 3-pointers to push the Hawks’ lead to 32 points — but that happened. Kris Humphries, who hadn’t played a minute in Games 1-4, delivered the coup de grace on the night that told us all we need to know about these teams.
The Hawks shrugged off a lost weekend in Boston and a rotten start in this one and won 110-83. They were so dominant over the final 2 1/2 quarters that you wondered how this series was tied in the first place. It’s untied now. It should stay that way.
Even Brad Stevens can’t scheme his way past the gap in talent that separates his Celtics from these Hawks. (Well, can he?) The Hawks had a 15-point first quarter and a 42-point third. They went from straining to score to winning with disdain. They are — or should be — too good.
For much of the first half, the Hawks were having as much success against Boston’s NBA team as the Braves, playing two miles away, were against Boston’s MLB entry. Al Horford followed an eight-point Game 3 and a five-point Game 4 by going pointless in the first half. He took eight shots. He missed eight shots.
Paul Millsap, who scored 45 points in the Game 4 overtime loss, missed his first four shots and his first two free throws. What was this, Scoreless All-Star Night? Surely the Celtics’ defense had something to do with it, but no defense is that good.
By osmosis, the Celtics led 20-15 after a quarter, the score underscoring how good the guarding and how wretched the shooting had been. For the Hawks, it got no better for another six minutes. Millsap’s layup with 5:59 left in the half gave them their 20th and 21st points and cut the Boston lead from 10 to eight.
Millsap’s modest bucket touched off a flurry of offense, all by the Hawks. Mike Scott – who was a big deal in this first half, scoring nine points – sank a 3-pointer. Millsap hit from the lane. A ridiculously unguarded Jeff Teague hit a trey. Scott flipped home a hook. Millsap hit from the lane again. Suddenly the Hawks weren’t down by 10 anymore. They were ahead.
Then they were leading by 10. Kent Bazemore made like Scott had two Aprils ago in Indianapolis, hitting three 3-pointers in 87 seconds. Until Teague’s miss at the halftime horn, the Hawks – who’d missed 28 of their first 34 shots – had made 11 in succession. How’s that for heating up?
The Celtics, meanwhile, had a big-name issue of their own. Their best player – Isaiah Thomas, who’d scored 43 points in Game 3 and sank the clinching trey in Game 4 – worked 18 first-half minutes and managed nary a point. The Philips Arena gathering was booing Thomas whenever he touched the ball, which was often, and he appeared reluctant to shoot. He took only four shots, missed them all and turned it over twice.
He would finish with seven points and what was described as a mildly sprained left ankle, which augurs poorly for the Celtics in Game 6. We saw in Game 5 that the Hawks can manage on a night when Horford does next to nothing; the Celtics have no hope if Thomas isn’t splendid.
Having closed the first half making 11 of 12 shots, the Hawks opened the third quarter by sinking 13 of 20. By then it was 80-58, the Hawks having scored – pause for effect – 61 points in 15 minutes. This was more like it. This was the Hawks at their pace-and-space-and-nail-the-trey best. The gap in talent and skill was again made manifest.
On a night when losing would have been unthinkable, the Hawks roused themselves and seized control in a series they’d rendered more difficult than it needed to be. They’re the better team, and not by a little. They should put the Celtics to bed Thursday night. If there’s a Game 7 here Saturday, it’s their own darn fault.
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