The Celtics fly away from Atlanta with a win
The Boston Celtics finished off their 4 game road trip with a 123-93 win over the Atlanta Hawks. The Celtics go 3-1 on their road trip, the lone loss coming against the Pacers last wednesday (Oct. 30), but the Celtics have won their last three (2 in Charlotte, 1 in Atlanta). The Hawks came into this game with a 2-5 record, but a much better team than the record has to show for it. Lead by a core of Trae Young, Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels, the Hawks have a sneaky young squad and the potential to rise up in the rankings over the next couple of years. They decided to reevaluate their team this offseason by trading away Dejounte Murray, for Dyson Daniels, Ej Liddell, Larry Nance Jr., Cody Zeller, in a sign and trade, and two future first round picks. In this game the Hawks were without Bogdan Bogdanovich and De’Andre Hunter, while the Celtics were without Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis.
But the absence of Jaylen Brown did not effect the Celtics whatsoever. Jayson Tatum continued his incredible starts to games this season with a 16 point first quarter, shooting 6/8 from the field, and 4/6 from 3. He also dished out two assists and two rebounds. By the end of the half JT had 26 points on 9/13 shooting, and 6/10 from deep, and finished the game with 28 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 steals. But he was not the only one who showed up for the Celtics, Derrick White provided a class D. White game, scoring 21 points, grabbing 6 rebounds, dishing out 6 assists, while also getting 2 steals and a blocked shot. Payton Pritchard provided the spark off the bench scoring 18 points with 3 rebounds and 4 assists to go along with it. And Jrue Holiday is getting back into his rhythm, scoring 16 points on 63% shooting, while also playing stellar defense against Trae Young.
The Hawks struggled to truly get a spark going on offense. Jalen Johnson scored a team high 20 points on 35% shooting, bringing in 11 rebounds and 4 assists to go along with it. Onyeka Okongwu played a great game scoring 18 points, grabbing 10 boards, and also getting 2 steals, all while shooting 66.7% from the field. But the big storyline was the performance of Trae Young. Trae did not have his shot going tonight. He scored 2 points on 1/10 shooting, and going 0/6 from 3. The Celtics defense was extremely disruptive for Trae and their defensive scheme showed that. The versatility of Jrue Holiday played a major role in this. Whenever Trae would call from a screen and role action with Clint Capela, Jrue would be guarding Capela, and Derrick White would be on Trae, that way, the Celtics could switch the matchup and have another guard on Trae, while D white would guard the roller, and if the pass went their, the help side defense would rotate over and stop the pass. There were very few times a big would be switched on to Trae, but Neemias Queta and Luke Kornet did a great job staying on their feet and not biting on the pump fake.
And on the offensive side of the ball, they would continue to attack Young. A lot of the actions consisted of JT bringing the ball up and a guard, whether it be Jrue, Derrick, or Pritchard, would screen for Tatum and force the double because of how well Tatum was shooting, and because of his height and passing ability, he would get it to the screen man for an open shot. Or if the defense rotates, then the screener would make the extra pass for another open shot. That is the nucleus of Celtic basketball, is the versatility on both ends of the floor, and getting those open shots on the perimeter. The Celtics shot 38% from 3, which helped them get a 22 point lead at the end of first half, and cruise to a 30 point victory. The Hawks shot 6/31 from beyond the arc, good for 19.4 percent. The Celtics had a recipe for success and they executed perfectly to end out the road trip.
The Celtics next game will be on Wednesday, at home against the 6-1 Golden State Warriors. This is one that I am sure the Celtics have circled, not only because of the Warriors record, but the disrespect towards Tatum in the off season, benching him for two games during the Olympics. And as well Jaylen Brown will most likely play after being off for the previous two games, and he has some revenge to get of his own, after he was left off of the Olympic team all together. That game will be primetime ESPN for everyone to see. The Hawks next game is also on Wednesday, at home against the New York Knicks. The Knicks are coming off a loss against the Rockets and are 3-3 on the season, both teams will be looking to walk out with a win, should be a fun one to watch.
