Title contenders ‘can be a lot better’

With an opportunity to make a definitive statement in this series, that the Atlanta Hawks don’t belong on the same floor, the Celtics instead gave their opponents a glimmer of hope.

After a dominant first half in which they steamrolled the wounded Hawks on the way to a 30-point lead, the Celtics relaxed in the second half and held on for a 112-99 win on Saturday in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first-round series.

The first half was the Celtics Greatest Hits CD; all the reasons why they are an elite team and a bona fide contender for the NBA championship. The second half was a team that got bored with the process, held on to the ball to waste clock instead of pushing the pace, and began tricking off the game with low-percentage passes, rushed 3point attempts, and missed layups.

The Celtics began their championship quest at TD Garden the way they wanted, with a victory. But they definitely have to improve on certain offensive aspects, which includes shot selection and playing with an accelerated tempo.

There are plenty of mistakes and miscues for coach Joe Mazzulla to review, but he gets to review them after a victory, one which the Celtics led by double digits for the final 34 minutes. Any playoff win should be cherished, especially when you play well enough to build a 32-point lead.

The ghastly second half — 38 points, 34.9 percent shooting, 9 turnovers, and 13 missed 3-pointers — gives Mazzulla plenty of material to cover, plenty of examples that his team is capable of so much more.

“Even though we were fortunate enough to win, you know we can be a lot better,” Mazzulla said. “We can do things better. They got more offensive rebounds than us. We turned it over more.

“There’s a lot of stuff there that we can just build on. So we’re fortunate in that and we have to have the mind-set that we can be better.”

There are plenty of positives from Game 1. The Celtics whipped the Hawks without elite games from Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown.

Brown was nursing his stitched right hand from a recent home accident and the cut broke open during the game. He led the Celtics with 29 points but also committed six turnovers.

Brown will be better once he gets accustomed to playing with his ailing shooting hand and eventually it will heal. But for his first game with a significant wound, it was a success.

Tatum was brilliant in stretches but also consumed with the officiating. He did not attempt his first free throw until there was 1:05 left in the game. And this wasn’t 3-point Tatum, he definitely made an emphasis to attack the rim.

What’s more, the Celtics’ focus was to draw the Atlanta bigs away from the basket and attack the paint. They equaled the more physical Hawks on points in the paint, a testament to their emphasis on their opponent.

The one advantage for Mazzulla and his staff is they can prepare solely for one team. The Hawks punished the Miami Heat on rebounds and secondchance points in the play-in opener Tuesday. The Celtics made sure they wouldn’t get pounded the same way, sending several defenders at the rim on Atlanta shots. The result was a 5845 rebounding margin. That was one of the keys to victory. The Celtics were better prepared.

As for Tatum, he scored 25 points but recorded just one field goal in the second half. He was annoyed with the officiating, and in one instance after a noncall he rolled the ball away from veteran official Bill Kennedy heading into a third-quarter timeout. Marcus Smart immediately sensed Kennedy’s irritation with Tatum and gathered the ball and rolled it directly to Kennedy.

Kennedy smiled and then pointed at Smart as if to say, “You just saved your boy from a tech.”

The fact the Celtics were able to win rather easily without a premium Tatum or Brown is a good sign. And Tatum realizes he has to adjust when he’s not getting calls on his drives.

“Just keep playing; all that matters is if we win or not,” Tatum said. “It’s not always going to go your way, especially with the officials but you just stay composed and just focus on trying to win the game.

“They were going to play better and make a run in that second half, and it took us a little while to respond and kind of wake up from that, and we did. We [have to] be a little bit better in those situations.”

So Saturday was a learning experience.

The Celtics punched first and second and third in this game, withstood the customary Atlanta run, but also lost their identity in the middle of the game. They gathered themselves enough to respond and hold on, but adjustments will be necessary moving forward in this series. They are considerably the better team and they could have choked the confidence out of the Hawks if they had continued their dominant first-half performance.

We saw enough in Game 1 to be impressed with these 2023 playoff Celtics, but they left us wanting so much more, and they’re capable of being better than they were a year ago.