Hawks blow 16-point lead in loss to Boston
ATLANTA — Kyrie Irving appreciates what he calls “the innocence of the game” during Boston’s 15-game winning streak.
In his first season with the Celtics after demanding a trade from Cleveland, Irving is enjoying the torrid start because everything feels so new.
“Most of us have never been on a winning streak like this,” he said. “I don’t know if we even know how to pay attention to all the hoopla that goes on in terms of the excitement of it. I just think that every single game we take it as a challenge.”
Irving scored 30 points, Jaylen Brown added a career-high 27 and the Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks 110-99 on Saturday night.
At 15-2, Boston leads the NBA and has matched the best start in franchise history through 17 games.
Dennis Schroder had 23 points, and Kent Bazemore added 19 for Atlanta. The Hawks are an Eastern Conference-worst 3-13, but they still had plenty of adrenaline following a 46-point victory over Sacramento — the biggest in franchise history.
Atlanta used a 16-0 run in the first to take a 15-point lead. But fueled by Marcus Smart and other reserves, Boston pulled within four twice in the second and cut the lead to six in the closing minutes on Brown’s 3.
Marcus Morris and Jayson Tatum each had 14 points for Boston. John Collins scored 18 and Taurean Prince added 14 for Atlanta.
Tip-ins
Celtics: Tatum was scoreless until he stole the ball and dunked to cut
the lead to four in the third. The 19-year-old former Duke standout followed with an acrobatic, one-handed dunk on a fast break to make it 75-72 and had another dunk to put Boston up 7877 near the end of the period. Tatum had all 14 of his points in the third.
Hawks: Prince is developing into a solid option on offense, spinning for a layup against Shane Larkin and floating a soft assist on Collins’ dunk that put Atlanta up 84-82. But Prince has a substandard reputation as a defender, and coach Mike Budenholzer gave him an earful after calling timeout in the third. Prince had just missed an assignment that left Brown open to hit the big 3 from the left corner.