THE BEAT GOES ON
Celtics dump Hawks for 15th straight win
ATLANTA — Brad Stevens, unsatisfied in the best of times, had the following take on the winning streak the Celtics carried into Philips Arena last night.
“We haven’t played well enough to consider this win streak to be valid in my opinion. We’ve figured out ways to win games. We gotta play a lot better.”
In the meantime, they seem to have mastered the task of figuring out ways to win when it seems unlikely.
The Celtics have come back from 18 points down twice and from 17 points down once during a winning streak that reached 15 in a row with their 110-99 victory over the Hawks. And with that, Stevens’ team added overcoming a 16-point deficit, which is the firstquarter hole they climbed out of against Atlanta.
Jaylen Brown, mourning the loss of his best friend Trevin Steede, followed up a 22-point performance against Golden State with 27 points against Atlanta on 10-for-13 shooting.
The Celtics forward, who left before the locker room opened after the win, continues to amaze with his ability to lock in despite the tragedy.
“He’s not alone. That’s spirit in the truest form and he understands that,” said Kyrie Irving. “Like I said the other night, the physical presence of his best friend is lost, but his energy still exists. He’s still playing with unbelievable verve. He’s not saying much, but I know at the end of the day he’s doing what he loves to do. He’s perfecting his craft and he’s doing it at a very high level. The whole season Jaylen has been doing a lot of unbelievable things. He has a lot of strength.”
Marcus Smart, who lost his older brother Lawrence to cancer, also understands the need to forge ahead.
“I definitely pulled (Jaylen) to the side,” Smart said. “There’s things more important than just basketball. He’s witnessing that, he’s going through it. But he’s a strong kid, like I said. This is just another challenge and obstacle that’s going to make him stronger.”
Brown and the rest of the Celtics also had significant support in the seats around them with a loud and welldistributed helping of green-clad fans, who chanted “M-V-P” for Irving down the stretch, as he scored his team’s last seven points on his way to 30 points on 10of-12 shooting.
Once again, it seemed like the Celtics gained fuel by falling behind by double digits early in the game.
“We don’t try to,” Irving said of the big deficits.
“Some teams will go on runs, whether that be us giving up some easy ones or giving up some turnovers,” he said. “We look at things we can correct, and when we do correct them in the game — we don’t make it a habit of getting down, but teams are coming at us and giving us their best shot. The coaching staff makes adjustments and we go out there and execute it. Things are falling our way. We don’t make it a habit, but we understand that when we lock in defensively, we have an unbelievable second unit that’s able to come in and change the pace of the game defensively. They do an unbelievable job of picking up the pressure, and then the ball gets hopping.”
Jayson Tatum had all of his 14 points in the third quarter, including the Celtics’ last 10 in that stanza. After a scoreless first half by the rookie, he was the force behind an 80-77 lead at the start of the fourth.
The Celtics regained the lead three times over the first 5:25 of the fourth, the third on an Al Horford post move for an 87-86 edge. From there, the Celtics carved out a little space with an off-balance drive by Brown for a three-point play, followed by a pair of Irving free throws for a 9286 lead.
After an Atlanta jumper, Irving rolled in a deep 3-pointer with 4:35 left, and with 4:06 on the clock Marcus Morris hit two free throws for a 97-89 lead.
The Celtics were getting the better of the scoring swap when, with 2:57 left, Brown took Taurean Prince off the dribble for a 101-93 lead.
Smart, as only he can, then dominated the proceedings with a put-back basket, a steal and a charge drawn against Marco Belinelli.
Another Irving 3-pointer from deep in the left corner pushed the lead to 106-97.