Celtics military execute down the stretch, Hawks not quite there yet, Celtics win 16th in a row

Hawks 85 Celtics 88

22 20 17 29

21 22 19 23

BOX SCORE

Mann.. it hurts so bad to type that headline. This was the game of the year to alot of people, the city of Atlanta was alive for this game in a way they haven't been since the playoffs, of course, there was no shortage of hype for this game. What sucks is the result of all that hype. So many things went wrong for the Hawks in this game, this was a defensive battle, and unfortunately, obviously, the defending champs win in that aspect.

PeachtreeHoops defined the deciding factors in this game in his recap, here is some of that info:

Possible determining factors for Boston's win...

• Whereas only Ray Allen (1-8) struggled atypically from beyond the arc for Boston, both Joe Johnson (1-7) and Mike Bibby (2-8) struggled for the Hawks. Of course, the flip side* of that for Atlanta is that Josh Smith and Ronald Murray combined to make 3 of 5 three-pointers. Atypical isn't really a strong enough word to describe that.
• Atlanta's willingness to switch ball screens and leave Mike Bibby guarding Paul Pierce one-on-one. On a night when no one who was used to making three-point shots was making them, Pierce attempted just one three-pointer mostly because he didn't need to. I presume the Boston staff watched tape of the Cleveland game where a couple of times in the second half, the Cavaliers had either Mo Williams or Delonte West set a screen for LeBron, the Hawks switched, and LeBron got to attack either Flip Murray or Mike Bibby one-on-one. Cleveland only ran this a handful of times. Boston had to run it at least 12-15 times. Bibby never had a chance.
• Boston, with the bizarre exception of Atlanta's penultimate possession (if you count Bibby's prayer with .7 left a possession) where Joe Johnson was presented with just Ray Allen as an obstacle to the basket, did Johnson no such favors. When Atlanta ran (and ran and ran) isolations for Johnson on the wing, Boston put at least three defenders on the strong side. There was nowhere for Johnson to go and no one to receive the ball as off-the-ball movement, as 'Nique pointed out (and pointed out and pointed out) on the local broadcast last night, isn't really a part of the Hawks' half-court offense.

There is some level of respect (at least in the media) for the Hawks to the Celtics, here are some post-game quotes:

"This is not a rivalry. [The Hawks] are a very good team, they play with a lot of confidence and swagger. Joe Johnson is one of the best in the business and they cause a lot of hell and havoc. But you have to win for it to be a rivalry." -Kevin Garnett

"If they played everybody the way they play us they’d be a top five team in the league." -Rajon Rondo

What we learned about the Hawks in this game:

Josh Smith needs to learn how to play the power forward position,and he should learn that from Kevin Garnett, if he can rebound and block shots with the best in the NBA, but if he wants the ball on offense, he has got to develop that KG footwork, the reason the Hawks aren't taken seriously as a balanced team is beacause we dont have a true center and we don't have a true power forward.

Marvin Williams needs to do a little more on offense, i think he is the most improved Hawks player this season and he is slightly reliable on offense, he should be given more chances, after scoring 11 pts at halftime he scored 5 points the rest of the game

Mike Bibby needs to learn to penetrate, he did that one time and scored, but never again, seeing the way Rajon Rondo gets the rim at will, Mike Bibby should learn to do that.

Al Horford is a beast, but Kendrick Perkins is just a little meaner than he. Al Horford plays the center position as well as any big in the East not named Howard, but he must be more offensively polished

Joe Johnson is not perfect, people. I know that might break alot of hearts, but even with the biggest game of the season on the line, after making 7-7, Joe can miss that 8th free throw, he is still the 3rd best SG in the league, but not perfect.

The Hawks are gonna be alright, it will be very interesting to see how they bounce back from this at Phillips Arena against fast-paces Golden State, i wanna see the Hawks score 120 pts for once.

ATLANTA HAWKS
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Marvin Williams, PF	39	6-12	0-2	4-7	4	4	8	3	1	2	2	2	16
Josh Smith, PF	41	4-13	1-2	5-7	1	6	7	4	1	1	3	5	14
Al Horford, C	41	3-10	0-0	2-2	4	7	11	4	0	2	2	3	8
Joe Johnson, SG	40	6-16	1-7	7-8	2	3	5	4	3	0	0	3	20
Mike Bibby, PG	38	5-16	2-8	2-2	0	5	5	2	0	0	3	1	14
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Maurice Evans, SF	15	1-4	1-2	0-0	2	0	2	0	0	0	1	2	3
Ronald Murray, SG	12	2-4	2-3	0-0	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	6
Zaza Pachulia, C	14	2-4	0-0	0-1	2	1	3	0	0	1	2	4	4

Hawks/Celtics Playoffs Rivalry Game 8 - Hawks superb but "the Truth" prevails; Hawks 102 Celtics 103

Truth Hurts

But just as the close and competitive as that game was, thats how close the Hawks are to the Celtics level

Box Score

The Hawks are earning some respect big time after this one, the whole world knows the odds were all against the Hawks, Josh out, second night of back-to-back, the significance of the rivalry that has become with us game the Hawks all the skill, energy, and adrenaline they needed to win. But, time was not on our side, its just not quite our time yet, it would have been TOO big a shock to the world, a little unbelievable that the Hawks would beat the Celtics in that circumstance, and then, if the Hawks did win, it wouldn't have been "Hawks WIN!" it would have been, "Celtics Lose" and people would be more reluctant to praise the Hawks, because now, they're just getting lucky, everyone knows they're not better than the Defending Champion Celtics, not yet. But with the game unfolding the way it did, it makes people give the Hawks credit like "Wow, that was a great game, hey, the Hawks are pretty good now"

The Atlanta Hawks VS Boston Celtics is the most exciting rivalry in the Eastern Conference right now, Although Kevin Garnett doesn't agree, (there are a number of reasons for that), the general public, sports fans vehemently agree, look at this infomation from the great Sekou Smith:

“A year ago a game between the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks was hardly worth a second look. On Wednesday night, the telecast of the postseason rematch was the highest rated regular season game in Comcast SportsNet history.

The final half hour, which included Paul Pierce’s game-winning heroics, was the top rated program on Boston television, beating out network hits such as House and Law & Order. The game drew an estimated 245,000 households in New England and 163,000 in the Boston market alone.”

Yahoo! Sports behind the boxscore game review

AJC's Sekou Smith first loss recap