Young Hawks Show Grit, Immaturity

Good observations about the Hawks ability to play better in the half court and the Celtics’ inability to really run their offense…or defense as we are accustomed to.

I agree that a game like this should help. But I give the Hawks a lot of credit for last night’s game.

I thought Posey tried to string together some effective defense and hit a few big threes in the 4th quarter, but the Cs couldn’t put it together.

Horford’s yelling in Paul’s face was bush league and warranted a tech, but in general Roy is right. I disagree with his comparisons to KG and Pierce.. there’s a difference between trash talking and celebrating over-zealously. Trash talking is part of the fabric of this game and mostly done in private. Celebrating is making it public and a weak attempt at oneupmanship.

My main comparison is Perkins. Perkins does the kind of crap Horford, Smith, etc did tonight regularly. And he’s largely celebrated for it. Hell I celebrate it.

It was a big win for those guys. They’re young, they haven’t been here before. Good for them.

The C’s just need to focus on executing and let their play do the talking. I do thing the Shot Clock malfunction rattled them in the 2nd half. Playing half-court ball is all about passing and the clock. The Hawks like run and dunk, so the clock has virtually no meaning to them.

For what it’s worth, the mouthing off was one thing, it goes on all the time. But I really didn’t like Horford turning around and coming back to finger point at PP when he was down on the court attempting to get up.

That said, the Hawks have a renewed sense of confidence off of their “Rocky I” type win. When we all began talking about a walk over, when we all began talking about the EC Finals battle against Detroit, when we all began talking about LeBron and the Cavs in the next round………I was a bit concerned. Why? Because this is a new season. The Celtics have won 2 games. Not 66. Two. And Horford has played well in all three games, not just on Saturday night. The difference was in his supporting cast who played much better than in the first two games. Additionally, the Atlanta fans had their first taste of playoff action in quite a while and they too, responded emphatically.

Make no mistake about it. Monday night’s game is not going to be a Celtic blowout. They had better put their game faces back on unless they want to make a return visit to Atlanta.

Like the rest of you, I am as “green” as one can be. I was disturbed with the way the C’s lost on Saturday night. It happened after the All Star break in a similar, yet different fashion and took several games to right the ship. Yes I know KG was just returning to action and the situations were different. However…..

From my perspective, they had better take it one game at a time and forget about all the press, all the hype, all the accolades. Because as Doc has said repeatedly, “They haven’t done anything yet”……other than hold a 2-1 lead against the Hawks. The rest of what you read and hear is B.S.

Roy, you are absolutely right about your perceptions in this specific thread. But remember that we have also have a number of fans in this site that blame every loss of the Celtics on poor officiating; seems we have never been beaten fair and square, so why shouldnt Hortford be lambasted for metting out some of the same medicine we have metted out to other oppossing(sic) players. Please bear with those obtused minded fans We have not won anything yet, so we are as good as other players that havent won anything yet either. Its funny to read some of the posts when we get blown out in a game. Some fans should realizes that previous wins dont count anymore. This is a new season where anything can happen and many times happens.

i did not see mental toughness in the second half when atlanta was taking it to us—also not a lot of offensive creativity. slap it in to kg, take the customary cut to the basket and little boxing out— clearly outplayed and out coached.

I think the Celtics needed a wake-up call, and they got one. When a #8 seed is dunking on you all night and getting layups, it says something. I don’t know if they were coasting or whatever, but the lack of effort on the defensive end was tough to watch. Granted, the Hawks shot a great percentage from 3-point land, but they also got alot of offensive rebounds against a great rebounding team. Monday’s game will be interesting.