ATLANTA - On a day when schools throughout the area were closed because of a snowfall that slicked up the roads a bit but barely accumulated, the Celtics [team stats] couldn’t complete the trip to a triumph.
They were unable to steer out of a third-quarter skid, falling to the Hawks, 93-85, last night.
The Celts looked far too much like the paralyzed Georgia citizenry following the alleged storm here. (Seriously, calling it a dusting would be overly dramatic.)
“I thought they played harder,” C’s coach Doc Rivers said. “I just thought offensively we had very little ball movement. I thought we just tried to do it all ourselves. Defensively is where I was disappointed. I really thought because we were not scoring it affected us on the other end and I didn’t think we made a great effort. You put in and you get out the same amount, and we got out of this what we put in it.”
Rivers again leaned heavily on his starters, with Paul Pierce [stats], Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo [stats] all playing more than 40 minutes. Rasheed Wallace and Kendrick Perkins [stats] went 38 and 37, respectively. Pierce, in his second game back from a knee infection, had 21 points despite a stomach virus. Rondo, still nursing an ailing left hamstring, hit two 3-pointers after entering the game 3-for-27 from the distance on the season.
But the Celtics couldn’t overcome their spotty play.
Emerging from the first half with a 45-39 lead, they proceeded to hit a patch of ice. After a Pierce jumper at 10:01, the visitors secured just one field goal in the next 9:06 and just three the rest of the period. They finished the frame 5-for-22, including one stretch of 1-for-16 marksmanship.
The Hawks were more than happy to take up the scoring slack, producing a 23-4 run that staggered the Celts. But it didn’t knock them out.
“When one team is just shooting wide-open shots and the other team is taking poor shots, that usually happens,” Rivers said.
Down 68-53, the C’s struck back. Pierce broke the glacier with a trey early in the final minute of the third quarter, Rondo tipped in Eddie House’s missed fast-break layup try and Glen Davis hit a pair of free throws to make it an eight-point game entering the fourth.
There, the Celtics kept on the heat, coming back from a Jamal Crawford four-point play to score nine straight points and get within two (78-76) with more than five minutes left. But Mike Bibby put in a 3-pointer as the Hawks inched away.
The killer possession for the Celts came when Atlanta missed three shots but managed to track each down. The Hawks got just one point out of the trip up the floor, but their time of possession really cut into the Celtics’ chances. Crawford, who had 14 of his 18 points in the last period, then hit a cinching trey with 53 seconds left.
That makes the Hawks 2-0 against the C’s this season.
“They feel real comfortable with us right now,” said a disappointed Perkins after collecting 15 points and 14 rebounds. “They’ve beat us in our house and their house now. I thought this was a statement game for us. I think we played in spurts. I don’t think everybody was on the same page. Our defense was pretty good, but it could have been better. And offensively we just (stunk). We didn’t play Celtic ball tonight.
“I think sometimes we kind of look over them. Guys don’t take them serious, but they take us serious. You can just tell with the way they’re playing that they’ve got something to prove.”
That the Celts had so much success when they did put their heads into it only underscores the critical remarks from Rivers and Perkins.
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