BOSTON — The second half got a little bumpy for the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks, even though their lead never really was in jeopardy.
The Celtics built a commanding 30-point advantage by halftime Saturday at TD Garden, but due to some sloppy play, saw the Hawks slowly chip away at the deficit and get within an uncomfortable 12 with 9:33 left in the fourth quarter.
Boston’s lead never dipped under that margin, though, as the Celtics went on to 112-99 win. Yet, it was still striking to see the Celtics get outscored 55-38 over the final 24 minutes after completely dominating in the first half against an inferior Hawks squad.
The second-half play of Boston, especially finishing with 17 turnovers, might cause a little worry for Celtics fans, but definitely don’t include Joe Mazzulla in that category.
“Yeah, I’m very concerned,” Mazzulla said while holding back a smile.
Mazzulla really saw how the game shaped out as a win-win situation for his team.
“No, I’m not concerned at all,” Mazzulla said. “This team has played great for the entire season. That’s going to happen. It’s actually good that we went through it. We had to feel that. And it’s important that we learn from it. So, for us to be able to get a win and at the same time know we can play better is good.”
The room for improvement isn’t lost on the Celtics players, either. They understand there are things they need to do differently when holding onto a big lead. After all, this same Celtics team that blew a 28-point lead at home to the Brooklyn Nets just over a month ago.
“To get up 30, you kind of just relax for a little bit, playoffs or not,” said Derrick White, who scored 24 points in the win. “We know we got to be better about that. We can’t take our foot off the gas and kind of slow down and play a little slower like we did in the second half. A lot of stuff that we can move on, make adjustments on and get better about.”
