Kevin Garnett delivered an all-around epic of 28 points, 14 rebounds, five blocks and three steals as the Celtics eliminated the Hawks in six games and moved on to the conference semifinals.
Fourth quarter, :09.3, Celtics 81-79: Kevin Garnett, man.
Garnett hit a turnaround jumper to give the Celtics the lead. Smith then missed a 20-footer against Bass, and Allen was fouled.
Allen, usually Mr. Automatic, missed yet again from the free throw line, giving Atlanta some sort of life.
Fourth quarter, :42.3, Hawks 79-78: Hollins had quite the 40 seconds there. He played solid defense on Johnson after picking up the Hawks swingman in a switch, forcing a miss. He then grabbed the rebound on a Garnett miss and drew the foul to give the Celtics the ball on the side.
Fourth quarter, 1:24, Hawks 79-78: Got a good one here. One-point game, 84 seconds to go.
Fourth quarter, 3:52, Celtics 76-75: It would not be a playoff game without the team that was behind making a run. The Hawks outscored the Celtics 8-2 to pull within one point without Garnett on the floor. Garnett checked back in, but once again the Celtics were playing with fire by letting the Hawks hang around.
Fourth quarter, 5:43, Celtics 74-67: Both teams went ice cold to begin the fourth, shooting a combined 2-for-17. Garnett was the only one on the court who seemed like he was not playing basketball for the first time. He scored six of the 11 points scored in the quarter and also had three rebounds before departing for a short rest.
He should not be on the bench for long. The Big Ticket’s owned this game.
Fourth quarter, 8:36, Celtics 74-65: Buried in Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon’s comments about Garnett being dirty was the Hawks boss called KG old. KG hates being called old.
With more than eight minutes left in the game, Garnett had 26 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and five blocked shots. Not bad for an old guy.
End of third quarter, Celtics 67-63: Johnson and Rondo exchanged crazy shots in the final minutes of the third. Rondo’s fallaway 22-footer at the buzzer protected gave the Celtics a four-point lead, putting the Celtics only 12 minutes away from the semis — if they could protect the lead.
Garnett continued his massive night with seven more points in the quarter to give him 20 for the game, and the Celtics pulled ahead in the rebounding battle 29-28. With one quarter left to go, the Hawks had taken six free throws.
Third quarter, 3:10, Celtics 62-55: The Celtics really put on their hard hats on defense in this quarter. Even Bass had two nice defensive plays, helping hold the Hawks to only 5-for-14 shooting.
By the way, the Sixers won on two clutch foul shots by Andre Iguodala. The Sixers await the winner of this series.
Third quarter, 7:02, Celtics 53-51: Give the Hawks some credit fr hitting some ridiculous shots. If it weren’t for those, the Celtics would have been running away with this.
Williams hit a trailing transition three to pull Atlanta within two points. In true Hawks fashion, it probably was not the best shot in that situation, but it went in, so it worked.
Rondo absorbed a hard foul by Teague, earning Teague a technical foul. Rondo did not seem too worked up about it, and even appeared to say something to the official, but a teammate pulled him away.
Halftime, Celtics 47-41: If the Hawks ran anything resembling an offensive set in the second quarter, it was tough to tell from here.
The Celtics had a lot to do with that obviously, by forcing six turnovers and blocking three shots. The Hawks’ atrocious shot selection should not get a pass, though, and neither should their suddenly inept work on the boards. Boston outrebounded Atlanta 11-6 in the frame.
The Good: Kevin Garnett dusted off his back-to-the-basket game in the second quarter, scoring 10 points and grabbing six rebounds in that quarter alone. He had 13 points and seven rebounds, with three steals, in total. … Paul Pierce looked gimpy on his sprained left knee in Game 5. Not so in Game 6. Pierce went to the hoop aggressively, hitting for of his six shots and all three of his free throws. … Rajon Rondo played out of control when need be, in control when he had to. Rondo had 10 points and six assists at halftime with only two turnovers, directing an offense that bounced back from a horrid first quarter to shoot 12-for-20 in the second. … Inexplicably, Josh Smith stuffed the stat sheet in the first half. He had 12 points almost entirely on poorly selected shots and grabbed five rebounds as well.
The Bad: Joe Johnson had a rough time shaking Pierce, missing five of his eight shots and committing two turnovers with no assists. The Celtics have elected to stick Pierce on Johnson and Avery Bradley on Jeff Teague, and the strategy worked in the first half.
The So-so: Horford contributed in some subtle ways, pulling down a team-high six boards and tying Teague for the team lead in assists with three. But he also missed two of the three shots he took and committed four turnovers. Talk about a mixed bag. … Bradley’s line of four points, two rebounds and a steal was not very impressive, but his defensive work on Teague was instrumental in preventing the Hawks from getting into their offense. Teague missed all three shots he took in the first half.
Second quarter, 2:25, Celtics 43-35: Yikes. The Celtics took a timeout, but the Hawks were the ones that needed it. Maybe it was a mercy timeout, like Rivers saying, “Listen, Larry, you guys really need to talk this over.”
The Celtics outscored the Hawks 23-12 in the quarter to build an eight-point lead that looked like it might balloon. Boston had three steals and two blocked shots in the the frame, with more than two minutes left before halftime.
Second quarter, 5:59, Celtics 34-31: The series of spurts kept going as the Celtics made their run to get out in front after an extended period of underwhelming offense.
The Celtics turned to Garnett in the post to spark a 14-3 run. It ended with Rondo tossing an over-the-top pass to Garnett for a reverse layup to give the Celtics their largest lead of the game.
The Sixers were beating the Bulls in the third quarter. If the Sixers win, there probably would be a game Saturday night regardless of whether the Celtics win or lose this one. The only question would be whether it is a Game 7 or a Game 1.
Second quarter, 8:55, Hawks 28-20: The Hollins-Garnett pairing that Doc Rivers likes defensively did its job in the early part of the second quarter, helping hold the Hawks to 2-for-6 shooting. The Celtics only managed to get off two shots, though, due to three turnovers. The defense would be useless if the Celtics are unable to score.
End of first quarter, Hawks 23-20: Mickael Pietrus and Ryan Hollins checked in to give the Celtics an extremely defense-centric lineup to close the first quarter. Defense might have helped the Celtics, but what they really needed in the first 12 minutes was to make shots. The Celtics shot 7-for-20 from the field and just 1-for-5 from three, with Allen surprisingly missing all three triples he took.
Horford made a huge difference on the glass, with the Hawks holding a 12-8 advantage in rebounds. Horford led the way with five boards.
First quarter, 2:09, Hawks 19-18: The footing on the floor to the right of the Celtics’ basket does not appear to be great. Bradley slightly lost his footing just before taking a jumper and Rondo slipped while driving the lane. (Rondo was also fouled.) Ray Allen then appeared to take an extra second to gather himself after his right foot slid slightly before he missed a wide-open corner 3-pointer.
The parquet seemed like the old Garden the night after a Bruins game. Weird.
Anyway, the floor did not keep Pierce from doing his work on the left side of the basket. He drove to the hoop, hitting two of his first three shots and getting to the line.
First quarter, 5:30, Hawks 12-11: The Celtics seemed to break out of their usual tendencies by switching on a couple pick and rolls on the perimeter. The Celtics almost never switch in such situations, and the result was Garnett covering backcourt players.
Still, the Hawks only occasionally were able to capitalize. They committed three turnovers in the first six minutes of the game on some ill-advised passes, preventing them from taking a wider lead against a Celtics team that missed seven of its first 12 shots and only grabbed two rebounds to the Hawks’ seven boards.
Brandon Bass got going early for really the first time in this series. He hit his first two shots and finally seemed to be in rhythm with his teammates on the offensive end.
First quarter, 10:19, Hawks 5-3: The Celtics passed up two layups on their first two possessions for jump shots, both of which missed. Garnett finally got them on the board with an old-fashioned three-point play.
8:04 p.m.: Justin Waithe sang the anthem. As usual, it was awesome. All the video montages in the world can’t get the crowd pumped up like a stirring rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner.
7:22 p.m.: Paul Pierce, Josh Smith and Al Horford highlight the list of players who do not feel 100 percent, but will play anyway in a possible elimination game on Thursday.
The Celtics can knock out the Hawks and earn a berth into the conference semis, or the Hawks can force a Game 7 on Saturday. If it goes that long, there seems to be an outside chance that Hawks big man Zaza Pachulia could return for that game. The 6-foot-11 Georgian took shots and jumped off his left foot, which has bone chips and has sidelined him since April 13, during Thursday’s shootaround.
Center Al Horford, who gave Boston fits in Game 5, will start and coach Larry Drew would not say if he would limit Horford’s minutes.
The probable starting lineups appear below.
Hawks
Al Horford
Josh Smith
Marvin Williams
Joe Johnson
Jeff Teague
Celtics
Kevin Garnett
Brandon Bass
Paul Pierce
Avery Bradley
Rajon Rondo
10:30 a.m. ET: Apart from Game 2, when the Celtics won in Atlanta to wrest home-court advantage away from the Hawks, home court has held true throughout the series. If the Celtics keep that trend going, they could be moving on to the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs Thursday night.
Everyone is expected to be available for Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who gave his players the day off again Wednesday to deal with an assortment of injuries. Paul Pierce is the greatest concern with a sore left knee that limited his movement in Game 5, but if you have any doubt Pierce will suit up, you have not watched much of The Truth over the years.
Join us for analysis and updates from the TD Garden during the game, which is slated for an 8 p.m. tip-off.
