NBA – Tatum goes big, leads Celtics past Hawks 112-107

With less than a minute to go, Atlanta Hawks had a couple of pop at the hoop from beyond the arc, which, had the visitors converted, would have forced the game into the over-time. But Kevin Huerter and Brandon Goodwin’s frailed shots, and the chaotic defence allowed Romeo Langford to draw in a foul on him, which he duly converted into two free throws. Boston Celtics eventually managed to hold the Hawks back and won 112-107 at TD Garden.

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Jayson Tatum starred for the Greens. He buried an incredible seven three-pointers in the game, en route to his game-high 32 points on 52.6% shooting, along with 2 blocks, 6 assists and 4 rebounds.

Celtics came out of the blocks like a wounded lion, scoring an incredible 24 points in the first five minutes on 9-11 shooting, while converting six of the seven shots from the 3-point line. Tatum made three longball, while Gran Williams, who replaced the injured Gordon Hayward in the starting five, accounted for five points. The Celtics also missed Jaylen Brown (right ankle sprain), and Daniel Theis (right ankle sprain) with injuries.

But Celtics’ sprint came to an unexpected halt after that run, as Hawks responded with a 19-7 run to close out the first quarter at 28-26. With the visitors remaining in the ascendency in the second quarter, and Celtics going without scoring for two and half minutes, head coach Brad Stevens sent in his second unit, Tremont Waters, Vincent Poirier, Romeo Langford, Brad Wanamaker, and Semi Ojeleye, to the floor, but the Greens couldn’t score for the next three minutes as well and the Hawks went into the break with a 55-54 lead.

Atlanta had only nine players available for this game, and their depleted roster, which was without superstar and leading scorer Trae Young, as well as DeAndrew Bembry, Cam Reddish and Bruno Fernando, came to haunt them as the scoring dried up and the Celtics took over the game in the third quarter with a 33-18 return.

Hawks had an improved fourth quarter, but the 15-point third-quarter deficit was too big to bridge for the shorthanded visitors, who, in fact, could have forced the overtime, as mentioned above, had they finish a couple of shots.

With that result, the Celtics extended their winning run to six games and improved to 36-15 on the season. The Hawks fell to 14-39, and remain eight and a half games behind the playoff seeds in the Eastern Conference.