Celtics’ Game 3 loss to Hawks comes with an important reminder originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Celtics are better than the Atlanta Hawks. There’s no reason to panic after a Game 3 loss to Atlanta at State Farm Arena, and the C’s still should advance to the second round in five or six games.
But Friday night reinforced what might be this team’s Achilles’ heel: They’re not great front-runners.
Entering Atlanta with a 2-0 lead and the chance to essentially put the series away, the Celtics took their foot off the gas ever so slightly — and the Hawks pounced. Spurred on by an energetic crowd, the Hawks shot 65 percent from the floor in the first half and ripped off a 20-3 second-quarter run to open up a double-digit lead.
Boston clawed back to make it a game down the stretch, but Atlanta’s stars shined in crunch time, with Trae Young and Dejounte Murray both hitting clutch buckets to seal a 130-22 Hawks victory.
Celtics Talk: Celtics have no answers for Trae Young, Hawks offense in Game 3 loss | Listen & Subscribe
“You give guys confidence — they’re in the NBA,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said after the game. “You’ve got a lot of guys that are here for a reason. You give guys confidence at home, you get moments like that, and they came back to bite us in the butt.”
The Celtics elevated their play against elite competition this season, winning nearly 70 percent of their games against the top 10 teams in the league (ranked by scoring differential). But they often stumbled when the stakes were lowered, with a worse winning percentage against the NBA’s bottom-10 teams than its top 10.
As a playoff team, the Hawks obviously don’t fall in that bottom-10 category. But they’re still heavy underdogs in this series with Boston, and the Celtics played like they had several times this season against heavy underdogs — especially on the defensive end.
After putting the clamps on Atlanta in Games 1 and 2, Boston allowed the Hawks to score at will in Game 3. Atlanta made a series-high 15 3-pointers, outscored the Celtics 54-40 in the paint and snatched 48 rebounds (including 11 offensive) to Boston’s 29.
“There’s nothing tactical about it: It’s just a matter of will. And they wanted it more tonight,” Smart said when asked about the Hawks’ rebounding advantage. “They go every night. We’ve gotta be able to stop that. Like I said, they’re getting second-chance shots, they get to feeling good.”
Unlike some of their regular-season duds, the Celtics held their own offensively, scoring 29 points in the final quarter to cut Atlanta’s lead to one before the Hawks pulled away. From Smart’s season-high 24 points to Grant Williams’ 14 points off the bench in his series debut, there were plenty of encouraging signs offensively.
If the Celtics want to get back to the NBA Finals, however, they need to play championship-level defense — the kind they played during the 2022 postseason, when they allowed just 102 points per game and stormed through the Eastern Conference with a chip on their shoulder.
The Celtics appeared to carry that same chip into the 2023 postseason, with last year’s Finals loss serving as motivation to maintain their edge. Yet Boston briefly lost that edge Friday night as a clear front-runner to let the Hawks into the series.
If we know anything about this group, however, expect that chip to re-emerge in Game 4 on Sunday night.