Jayson Tatum posted his second straight game with 30-plus points and Romeo Langford had a career-night as the Celtics came out on top in a battle of two very shorthanded squads. Three starters were out for Boston due to injury while Atlanta only had nine active players including no All-Star in Trae Young. The hosts came out on top however thanks to a strong second half and 32 points from Jayson Tatum on just 19 shot attempts. Kemba Walker added 15 points in his return from injury and Enes Kanter had a double-double but the biggest night may have been from Langford who had a career-high 16 points off the bench in 29 minutes.
It was the six straight win for the Celtics and nine of their last ten overall, pulling the C's within one game of the two seed in the East.
WHO: Celtics (35-15) vs. Hawks (14-38)
WHEN: 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: TD Garden
RADIO: 98.5 The Sports Hub
TV: NBC Sports Boston
Celtics
PG: Kemba Walker
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Grant Williams
C: Enes Kanter
Hawks
G: Trae Young
G: Kevin Huerter
F: DeAndre Hunter
F: John Collins
C: Damian Jones
Pregame Notes
- Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart will make their return to the lineup after missing both games this week due to a sore knee and quad respectively. "I think it’s definitely helped me," Walker said of the time off. "It’s good to get some rest and just kind of just get back mentally a little bit. It’s good. And the team is playing really well while I’ve been out so that’s been good as well.”
- Gordon Hayward (sore foot), Jaylen Brown (ankle) and Daniel Theis (ankle) will all sit out tonight. All three are expected to return before the All-Star Break though.
- Brad Stevens on the lack of activity at the trade deadline: "It was pretty quiet. Obviously there’s always some discussions, but from what I could tell, it was probably not a normal trade deadline year around the league. Just kind of thought that we’ve got a good team, and health is going to be really important to our team, obviously. We’ve talked all along, I think one of the most important guys to our ceiling is Robert. As he continues to get better, that’ll be a good thing. It’ll be like picking somebody up. So that’s a good thing, and hopefully everybody else we can get back and healthy."
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Stevens on the night of rest for Hayward: "Just a number of nagging things," he said. "He’s the one guy that since Christmas Day has played in every game. Everybody else has gotten an organic rest because of the injuries. So one of the things, he’s probably been due the last couple of games to miss one. These things never work out well, because you want to have everyone available, but that’s more of a conservative … make sure that we’re all good throughout this stretch. This stretch has been quite a stretch for the guys that have played all the way through it."
- New Hawks Clint Capela and Dewayne Dedmon will not be in uniform for this one.