BSJ Game Report: Celtics 119, Hawks 106 - Tatum, White, push Celtics to 2-0 series lead

Everything you need to know about the Celtics' win over the Hawks in Game 2 of their opening-round series, with BSJ insight and analysis

The Hawks came out hot while the Celtics' offense struggled in the early going, allowing the Hawks to build a lead of 11 points. The Celtics closed the quarter on a 13-0 run, capped by Malcolm Brogdon’s halfcourt bank shot, to take a 3-point lead. The Celtics carried that into the second quarter, with Brogdon carrying the team early especially with his passing. Derrick White had a crack as the best player on the floor, and then Tatum took it from there to put Boston up 12. They pushed the lead to 20 in the third but Dejounte Murray and the Hawks got hot from deep and the game hovered around 10 or so for a while. Then White led a late charge where he was everywhere on both ends of the floor and the Celtics pulled away.

Box Score

HEADLINES

Derrick White is on a roll: Much more on White coming up separately because he was the big story of this game. He was in the middle of everything positive and was so good that the crowd gave him MVP chants. 

Atlanta won the margins: I’ll get more into this a little later, but the Hawks hit the Celtics with some pretty good shots in this game, and they ended up winning some of the margins Joe Mazzulla likes to talk about. They took 15 more shots, all of them from 3 and they finished with 19 offensive rebounds. Yet, the Celtics were still up 22 in the fourth quarter.

“We tied the turnovers, but I think a few of those came at the end, and there were some dead ball turnovers,” Mazzulla said. “So a lot of it, even when we did turn it over, they weren’t able to capitalize on it. As good as it feels, we haven’t gotten better in two games because we’re not able to control the shot margin the way we need to. … And there are still I’d say 8-10 rebounds that we could do a better job of coming up with.”

Ultimately, Hawks have no real answers: Atlanta played a much better Game 2, which was to be expected. They helped a lot better at the rim, and the Celtics still finished with 64 points in the paint. They shot a lot better and the Celtics still finished with an effective field goal percentage 13 points higher than them. They forced 16 turnovers but also coughed up 16 of their own and lost the points off turnovers battle by 8. 

I thought the Hawks' third-quarter run was nothing like their run in Game 1, which the Celtics willingly gave up. This was a case of good players getting hot and an NBA team making a run, and they still fell behind by 22 in the fourth. They have nothing for Boston, and it will take a 50% shooting night from 3, on something like 45 attempts, for them to win a game. 

TURNING POINT

Bogdan Bogdanovic hit a 3-pointer to cut Boston’s lead to 8 with 7:48 to go, but then White sprung into action, hitting a layup and a 3-pointer, then later assisting on a Tatum 3-pointer before adding another layup and 2 free throws to push the lead to 14. By the 2:16 mark, the Celtics were on a 20-6 run that gave them a 22-point lead. 

FIVE UP

Derrick White: 26 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal, and 3 blocked shots. Just an outstanding performance from White. 

Jayson Tatum: He had a stretch in the second quarter where he was just rolling and carrying the team. Basically, that quarter was a relay race between Malcolm Brogdon, White, and Tatum as they built a double-digit lead. 

Most impressive was Tatum’s willingness to accept the double teams and move the ball. He didn’t try to take over the fourth quarter, instead moving the ball and letting White cook and finish the game off. He finished with 6 assists and 10 rebounds to go along with a game-high 29 points on 54.5% shooting. 

One of the recipients of a Tatum pass out of the double was Al Horford, who hit a monster 3 late in the game. 

That thing was a laser. 

"I was trying to get it there. I knew it was two seconds or less and I didn’t want them to deflect it or intercept it," Tatum said. "I tried to get it there in time in order for him to get a good shot off."

Jaylen Brown: A nice efficient game where he also didn’t force too much (18 points, 7-14 fg, 2-4 3pt). He was pretty good defensively, finishing with 3 steals and 2 blocked shots 

Malcolm Brogdon: 13 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds, a steal, and a block in a steady game after a tough Game 1. 

Marcus Smart: Bounced back from some early misses to shoot 6-11 from the field (4-5 from 2, 2-6 from 3). He can play some bully ball against Trae Young and get good looks from 10 feet and in. He also had 3 steals and pushed the pace nicely. 

NONE DOWN

Truly no bad Celtics performances in this game in my opinion. The rebounding wasn’t as good as it was in Game 1, so that has to improve. The turnovers have to be cut down some.  But other than that, this was pretty well-played game with none of the outright lulls that we saw in the second half of Game 1. 

TOP PLAYS

THREE TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- The Celtics are setting themselves up to be outshot in a game … and playing with fire

At this point, the trajectory of this series is following my script pretty closely. Early runaway where they built a 30-point lead, followed by a much tougher win where they pulled away late. But my next call is a Game 3 where the Hawks shoot the lights out and earn a little hope.

The Celtics are perfectly set up to allow that to happen, too, because they have lost the possession battle in two straight games. They were out-shot by 10 field goal attempts in Game 1, and they gave up 15 more attempts in this one, all of them from deep. The issue in this one is that Atlanta didn’t capitalize, only hitting one more 3-pointer than Boston. 

“We can definitely limit the Bogdanovic threes. Dejounte Murray was great tonight,” Mazzulla said. “I don’t know how many of those you can limit because he also has the ability to play off the bounce, but it’s definitely limiting the Bogdanovic ones. And again, out of the 19 offensive rebounds, some of them were 50-50 balls, some of them we can’t get, so we have to look at the ones we can control and we've got to do a better job of getting them.”

So the first issue here is that giving up this many extra possessions will invariably lead to a loss in this series. No big whoop there. The Hawks' defense is so unbelievably awful that they’ll need 30 more shots per game just to have a chance in the series. 

The second issue is the Celtics continuing this against one of the good teams they’ll face. It probably won’t be Philadelphia because Doc Rivers hates crashing for offensive rebounds. It could be Milwaukee, or it could be NBA Finals Participant X. 

This could just be an Atlanta thing, but the Celtics need to make sure they're winning on these margins outside of this series. Otherwise it will burn them. 

- Sam Hauser’s defense has been good

Wondering why Grant Williams hasn’t sniffed the floor in two games? Because Hauser has been holding his own defensively even while the ball hasn’t found him very often. It’s a big difference from early this season when he was unplayable if he wasn’t getting shots. 

He’s been able to switch effectively, challenge shots, and stay on the floor thanks to his defensive effort. He’s certainly not perfect, but he’s been effective enough to work in this series. 

- The Celtics crowd was on point (and yes, Trae Young is overrated)

In the middle of the afternoon, a poll of anonymous NBA players was released by The Athletic and Young was named the most overrated player in the league. He did nothing to dispel that on his way to 24 points on 22 shots performance where he was a team-worst -18. 

The folks in the crowd were very aware of that poll, apparently, because a very loud “OVERRATED” chant popped up when he was at the free throw line late in the game. 

Ouch. 

I was actually joking with a couple of guys from The Athletic before the game about whether an “overrated” chant would pop up. I said it would be a test of how savvy this fanbase is, and lo and behold, there they were. Color me impressed. 

Oh, and the player absolutely got it right. Trae Young is the most overrated player in the league and it’s not close. He may grow out of it and become a true superstar, but he’s a liability on the floor more often than he carries a team. When the NBA made it a point of emphasis to not call the head-snapping foul-hunting grifts a couple of seasons ago, I pegged Young as the guy who would be most affected and I think that's been the case. 

When he’s not getting to the line 12 times a game, he’s not effective. White’s block on Young early in the game was absolutely a result of Young driving to get fouled versus driving to score. The foul didn’t get called, and White blocked White with his elbow. 

The Hawks should explore trades while Young is young enough to still trick some team into thinking he can be their future. Maybe someone will look past the fact that he’s small, plays no defense, is an average shooter, and can’t score without help from the officials.

Next up: Game 3 is Friday night in Atlanta