Celtics Frustrated by Fourth-Quarter Collapse in Road Loss to Atlanta Hawks

If you were to take every disappointing Celtics loss this season and bundle them together into one 48-minute anthology, it would probably look exactly like Friday night in Atlanta. All the ingredients were there.

Double-digit lead in the second half? Check. A lack of muscle inside, especially on the defensive glass, exposed in the late minutes? Check. Failure to muster the requisite energy on the second night of a back-to-back? Check, of course.

But most of all, what doomed the Celtics on Friday night against the playoff-bound Hawks was a simple lack of smart execution. The "hero ball" complex that's already doomed the C's multiple times this season reared its ugly head time and again in the final minutes, and they paid the price.

With a minute and a half to play, down three, the Celtics had a golden opportunity to get back in the game. Kevin Garnett had a decent look at a short jumper but kicked it out to Glen Davis; Davis had a not-so-good look from 19 feet, and he chucked it. No good.

The Celtics got the ball back on the following possession, still down three, but Paul Pierce heaved up an ugly 3 early in the shot clock. Another miss.

There were other mistakes later — two missed free throws by Davis, and a KG foul of Zaza Pachulia going after a key rebound. But forget the physical stuff. This game was lost by the Celtics' mental mistakes in the final minutes.

"At the end of the game, the 'one more pass' rule went out the window," said a disappointed C's coach Doc Rivers. "I thought we took quick, bad shots. I thought we took all jump shots, and we got away from the post."

The Celtics had their opportunities to win this one. They had solid leads — 52-44 at halftime, and 66-55 toward the end of the third quarter. They were in a commanding position to close it out. A team with better focus and better resolve to execute well would have won this game, but the C's weren't that team in the final minutes.

"I thought we settled," Pierce said. "We took a lot of jumpers there when we could have pushed the lead to 15 in the third quarter. We were getting stops all night, but we couldn't score."

For the second time this week, the Celtics fell apart on the second night of a back-to-back. They did it on Monday night in Indiana; they do it again in Atlanta. They're now 7-10 this season at the end of back-to-backs. And as usual, their fatal flaw is the same — they get a lead late and begin to slack off.

"It's the same prescription for us in back-to-backs," Rivers said. "We had a chance to go from 11 up to 18 up, in my opinion. But we took horrible shots on one end, and then got lax on the other end, and it became a game.

"We had a chance in the third quarter to stretch the lead, and we didn't. Then they got back in the game. Then the back-to-back comes into play. We were just talking about it before the game that this is what happens, and this was another replay of it."

Rivers keeps reminding his players that in the playoffs, there are no back-to-backs. That's the one silver lining here. But after the way the Celtics executed in the fourth quarter on Thursday night in San Antonio, earning a convincing win over a fellow title contender, it's tantalizing to see them follow it up with a fourth-quarter choke.

The Celtics are trying to find their playoff rhythm, but Friday night was yet another regular-season loss. They can't afford too many more.