Celtics / Hawks - Herald
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Depleted Celtics fall to Hawks without Jayson Tatum
The Celtics’ streak of shorthanded success came to an end Monday night.
After beating Atlanta last Friday without Jaylen Brown and Charlotte on Sunday without Brown and Derrick White, Boston flopped in a rematch with the Hawks, losing 112-102 without a crew of contributors headlined by a resting Jayson Tatum.
The Celtics were missing two starters (Tatum and Neemias Queta) and two reserves (Nikola Vucevic and Ron Harper Jr.) on the second night of a back-to-back. Brown and White returned to the lineup, but both struggled for long stretches as Boston fell to 50-25.
Brown fell just short of a triple-double (29 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists) but posted his third-worst shooting percentage of the season (9-for-29) and had six turnovers. The Atlanta-area native also went just 8-for-14 from the foul line in his latest homecoming after making 91% of his foul shots over his previous nine games.
“I give credit to Atlanta, but that was probably one of my worst games of the season,” Brown told reporters postgame, before downplaying the Achilles tendonitis that kept him out of Boston’s prior two contests.
White was similarly inefficient, scoring seven points on 3-of-12 shooting, including 1-for-6 from 3-point range.
The star of the game for Boston was Luka Garza. Making his fifth start of the season in Queta’s absence, the backup center tallied 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds.
Payton Pritchard looked poised for another productive game off the bench, but he managed just three points after halftime and was a team-worst minus-19 over 26 minutes.
The Celtics will visit the Miami Heat on Wednesday before closing out their final extended road trip of the season Friday night in Milwaukee.
With the playoffs fast approaching, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has begun scaling back the workloads of his most important players. Tatum sat out Monday for what the team called Achilles repair management — his second DNP in 13 games since he debuted on March 6 — and Queta was sidelined with a thumb sprain.
To plug the holes in his top unit, Mazzulla started Garza, Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh. Scheierman and Walsh both got the nod over veteran wing Sam Hauser, who’d started every game he’d played since New Year’s Day.
Garza has posted strong numbers since Vucevic’s fractured finger pushed him back up to second on the center depth chart, and Monday’s game was one of his best yet. The 6-foot-10 big man made his first six field-goal attempts and scored 11 points in his first eight minutes of floor time.
Rookie Amari Williams relieved Garza midway through the first quarter and put up six rebounds, one steal, one block and one putback in his opening shift. He then gave way to veteran big Charles Bassey, who’d only played in garbage time across two 10-day contracts with Boston. In his first meaningful minutes as a Celtic, Bassey tipped in a missed White floater, then denied three straight Atlanta shots at the rim, including back-to-back blocks on Jonathan Kuminga and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
Boston’s biggest issue early in the game was ball security. Brown committed three first-quarter turnovers. Hugo Gonzalez had two, plus a blown defensive rotation that led to an open Hawks layup. The Celtics turned it over 10 times before halftime, leading to an 11-4 Hawks edge in points off turnovers.
But the teams entered the second half tied at 54-54, after nine lead changes and 10 ties, thanks largely to Boston’s effective offensive rebounding (11-3 in second-chance points) and productive scoring by Garza and Pritchard (13 first-half points apiece).
The undermanned Celtics lost steam in the third quarter, however, as a massive shooting disparity helped the Hawks build a double-digit lead. While Boston shot 5-for-20 in the period, Atlanta went 13-for-19, including the second made three of the night from the typically erratic Dyson Daniels. The All-Defensive guard came in shooting an ugly 15.5% from range — dead last among all NBA qualifiers — but hit both of his 3-point attempts Monday night.
“I thought we played pretty well, just got away from us in the third quarter,” Mazzulla told reporters. “Just some empty possessions on the offensive end, they hit some shots. We gave up too many layups in the third quarter. I think it was more out of three quarters we played, that got the best of us.”
Atlanta took a 90-76 lead into the fourth quarter, then quickly stretched it to 21 points. The Celtics made a push midway through the fourth, ripping off a 9-0 run and holding the Hawks scoreless for more than four straight minutes. Garza blocked a CJ McCollum layup and scored twice in the paint to reach the 20-point plateau for the second time in his Celtics tenure.
Brown, who scuffled as a shooter for most of the game, caught fire late with two 3-pointers and a contested midrange jumper that cut Boston’s deficit to eight with just over a minute remaining. But Atlanta’s lead proved too much for the Celtics to overcome.
Tatum wins Player of the Week
It took Tatum less than a month to secure his first individual accolade of the season.
The Celtics star was recognized Monday as the Eastern Conference Player of the Week after averaging 25.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists in Boston’s wins over Oklahoma City, Atlanta and Charlotte.
The home victory over the Thunder, which snapped OKC’s 12-game win streak, was the best collective performance of the season for Tatum and Brown. The pair combined for 50 points, 20 rebounds and 15 assists, with Tatum also registering three steals and one block.
Tatum then helped lead the Celtics to back-to-back wins without Brown, putting up 26-12-5 against the Hawks before posting season highs in points (32) and assists (eight) against the Hornets. The Charlotte game was Tatum’s most efficient since his March 6 comeback from Achilles surgery — he shot a season-best 12-for-23 and 5-for-10 from 3-point range and was turnover-free for the first time — and his most explosive, as well, featuring multiple authoritative drives past Hornets defenders.
Overall, Tatum has averaged 20.9 points, 9.1 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.1 steals across his first 11 appearances, shooting 39.9% from the field and 32.3% from three.
“Obviously, I’m still working through it, but I say it all the time: I want to feel better than I did last game,” Tatum told NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin after Sunday’s win. “Feel stronger, feel more confident, get my conditioning up. So that’s what I’m trying to (do).”
