The Boston Celtics were helped along by a raucous TD Garden crowd in Games 3 and 4 of their first-round NBA playoff series, both of which they won to pull even with the Atlanta Hawks.
The Hawks won’t enjoy anything close to that type of home-court advantage Tuesday night in Game 5.
Philips Arena in Atlanta ranked 22nd in the NBA in average attendance and 23rd in attendance percentage during the regular season, and while Games 1 and 2 of the playoff series both were announced as sellouts, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday what anyone watching the games on television easily could gather: The building was nowhere near full.
“My issue with the Hawks’ announced attendance is that the numbers are manipulated and disingenuous,” Vivlamore wrote.
Here’s how, in the writer’s words:
Let’s take the example of Game 2 of this series. Here are the attendance figures provided to me by a source inside the organization.
Announced attendance: 18,972 (recorded as a sellout)
Tickets sold: 16,358
Complimentary tickets: 2,614
Actual attendance: 14,256
So the number of fans in the building last week, known as the drop, was 4,716 less than the announced figure. That’s substantial.
It is, indeed. Vivlamore went on to report that 2,102 fans who paid for Game 2 tickets never showed up and that, as of Monday, 2,300 tickets for Game 5 had yet to be sold.
A hostile atmosphere, Atlanta is not.
How much of an impact do these lackluster crowds have on the games themselves, though? Well, in this case, not a significant one. Atlanta won both games on its home floor before dropping two in a row in Boston, and the Celtics have not won at Philips Arena — regular season or postseason — since Nov. 23, 2013.
Thumbnail photo via Jason Getz/USA TODAY Sports Images
