Home-court advantage mattered on this night.
The Hawks wanted it – and they made the most of it.
The Celtics seemingly passed on it – and it cost them early on.
The Hawks raced to an early lead, up by as many as 19 points in the first quarter, and held off the Celtics 83-74 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series Sunday night at Philips Arena.
“If they don’t want it, we’ll take it,” Josh Smith said last week after a narrow regular-season victory over the resting Celtics.
In that game, the Celtics choose not to play their two leading scorers while three other players sat out with injuries. They accounted for five of their top seven scorers. The Hawks escaped with a 97-92 victory that gave them a cushion in the race for the better record and home-court advantage. They kept it by closing out the season with wins in five of their final six games.
“We understand how important it is to have home-court advantage and we wanted to set the tone early,” Smith said. “We were just clicking on all cylinders. …
“This is just one game. We know they are going to make adjustments going into the second game. We just have to come out with the same momentum, the same energy.”
Against the Celtics starters, the Hawks dazzled early. They took a 19-point lead in the first quarter and had it still in the second quarter before the Celtics’ late charge.
By halftime, the Celtics were shooting just 36 percent from the field (15-for-41). They were 0-for-7 from 3-point range (and finished 0-for-11). Kevin Garnett made just 1-of-9 shots.
“I think they came out with the right attack mode and I think we came out thinking that our jerseys were going to win the game – we are the Celtics,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “You have to play basketball.”
With 9:14 remaining, and the Hawks’ lead cut to eight points, a number of Celtics fans in the building tried to start a Boston cheer. They were quickly drowned out by the home crowd.
Smith finished with a game-high 22 points (nine in the first quarter) and 18 rebounds, his 29th double-double this season. He hit a key jumper over Garnett late in the fourth quarter that gave the Hawks a 73-66 lead. It was Smith who was on the floor battling for a loose ball with Brandon Bass when a foul was called that led to the double-technical ejection of Celtics guard Rajon Rondo, a high school roommate of Smith’s at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia.
“It was definitely a foul,” Smith said. “That was the right call they made. I didn’t see what happened with Rondo. The league has to see what went wrong, or what happened, in that type of manner. You never know what’s going to happen. We are definitely going to factor him in going forward.”
Rivers said his team gained no mental advantage by playing the Hawks close with a lineup of bench players nine days before.
“It was great for our bench guys to play well and I know a lot of people thought that was good for us,” Rivers said. “At the end of the day, you are going to play your starters, especially in a playoff game.”
The Hawks, who won all three home games in the epic seven-game playoff series with the Celtics in 2008, will host Game 2 Tuesday night. Although the series opener was listed as a sellout there were empty season. Smith noticed there was room for more.
“I saw a couple of seats that were open tonight,” Smith said. “If we could fill those up, that would be great. We’ll definitely need the crowd with the home-court advantage. They were great tonight and we’ll need them throughout the whole series.”
