Hawks VS Celtics (Game 2)

Hawks Lead Series 2-0

The Boston Celtics dropped game 2. They had a lot of mistake, but they still can come back in the series. Let's take a look at what needs to happen for this team to win though.

The loss of Avery Bradley is a very devastating one. He is a knock down shooter, a very great perimeter defender, a great team player, and a guy who delivers at the end of games. If you remember last years match up in the Eastern Semi-conference finals between the Hawks and the Wizards, Bradley Beal had pressured Kyle Korver a lot. He forced Korver to put up tough shots and shoot uncharacteristically low from 3. That was Avery Bradley in this series. Kyle Korver shot very, very bad in game 1. In game 2 without Bradley, Kyle Korver shot 5-7 from 3-point range. Without Bradley, Korver is a big threat. They have to change that and have Marcus Smart chase him around the whole game unfortunately. Marcus Smart just needs to get up on him.

That leads me to my next point. Marcus Smart shot horribly from the field. He was 1-11 from the field and 1-6 from 3. He finished the game with 3 points. That is not filling the role of Avery Bradley at all. Without his production, they need someone to fill that in.

Speaking of bad shooting. The whole Celtics team shot poorly. Jae Crowder has not looked good at all since his knee injury. Game 1 he shot bad, and game 2 he shot 1-9 from the field and 0-4 from deep. He was wonderful defensively but was very rough offensively. Isaiah Thomas was just 4-15 from the field. They couldn't hit open shots. They shot just 28.6% on uncontested field goals. They got great looks, they just couldn't make them. You can have great defense, but you won't win if you're shooting 31.8% from the field as a team.

Boston Celtics - Shot Chart - www.nba.com/stats

One thing that was clear was that Amir Johnson deserves to start for this Celtics team. Johnson held Paul Millsap to just 1-12 shooting. Johnson also had 14 points and forced Millsap to turn the ball over 5 times. However, despite Johnson's defensive play, the Celtics can't put him on both Millsap and Horford at the same time. Horford ended the game with 17 points. The Celtics just don't stand much of a chance in the post.

The Celtics need to play much better on offense if they are to win this series. You need your top 2 players to perform, which they didn't do in game 2.

Hawks VS Celtics (Game 1)

Hawks Lead Series 1-0

This game was a tale of 2 halves. Boston lost the first half, Atlanta lost the second. After watching this whole game, I realized that this was going to be an interesting series.

If you take a look at the first half, the Celtics played very poorly. Jae Crowder shot just 1-10 from the floor and Isaiah Thomas shot just 2-8. The team shot just 23.1% from the field, 12.5% from 3, and ended the half with just 34 points. They also had no fastbreak points! Defensively, the Celtics seemed late on every defensive rotation, the help side was always late, and they gave up 26 points in the paint.

Boston's 1st half - shot chart - www.nba.com/stats

As for the Hawks, their big men dominated. Horford, Millsap, and Bazemore had a combined 31 points. Boston's big men were just too slow to react to the guards and the bigs of the Hawks. Jeff Teague was doing a wonderful job of making the extra pass to find the big man off the high pick and roll that Millsap and Horford thrive in. The Hawks were doing great.

The second half came around and the Celtics did a great job of defending the pick and roll. Everyone was on the same page. Crowder and Thomas stepped up their game and the Celtics picked up their percentages. They shot 50% from the field and 47.4% from deep in the second half. The big thing that brought them back into the game was transition. The Celtics went from having no fastbreak points in the 1st half to having 15 in the 2nd.

As for the Hawks, their bench couldn't convert in the second half and Korver was just brutal. He has 0-7 from 3 on the game. They were well defended, but the Hawks just didn't get back in transition. What won the Hawks the game was their late game defense. They made sure that every shot was contested and defended the ball handler really well. They executed in the last few minutes which got them the win.

While the Celtics lost, if they had a different 1st half, it could've been a much different game. I am very excited for this series as it continues and I think this could come down down to an amazing game 7. It will really depend on who wins, Atlanta's frontcourt or Boston's backcourt.