The Boston Celtics placed on a dominant show of protection to clinch a powerful 112-99 win in opposition to the Atlanta Hawks within the opening recreation in their Eastern Conference first-round sequence. The Celtics, seeded 2nd, constructed a whopping 30-point halftime lead in opposition to the Hawks, who boasted the perfect scoring reasonable within the East with 118.4 issues consistent with recreation.
Boston’s protection used to be the important thing issue of their victory, as they held Hawks’ famous person Trae Young to simply 16 issues on 5-of-18 taking pictures, permitting just one a success three-pointer from his 5 makes an attempt. Reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart led the defensive rate for the Celtics with 11 issues, seven rebounds, seven assists, 3 steals, and two blocks.
Despite their spectacular win, Celtics trainer Joe Mazzulla believes there may be nonetheless room for development in his workforce’s efficiency. “Even though we were fortunate enough to win, you know we can be a lot better. We can do things better,” Mazzulla stated. “They got more offensive rebounds than us. We turned it over more. There’s a lot of stuff out there that we can just build on, so we’re fortunate in that and we have to have the mindset that we can be better.”
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 29 issues and 12 rebounds, whilst Jayson Tatum had 25 issues with 11 rebounds, and Derrick White added 24 issues.
The Hawks had a 55-38 scoring merit in the second one part, and they’re going to glance to hold that momentum into Game 2 in Boston. The sequence will then transfer to Atlanta for Games 3 and four on Friday and Sunday.
Hawks trainer Quin Snyder believes that making improvements to their offense would be the key to good fortune for the workforce. “Some of that will be as simple as making an open shot and not having to defend in transition. And then there’s other things. We’ve battled our spacing. And we’ve got to continue to really drill down on that and be incredibly precise with where we are on the court.”
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The Celtics will probably be having a look to deal with their sturdy defensive efficiency and construct on their Game 1 good fortune once they face the Hawks once more in Boston on Tuesday.