What a hard-fought series. After some of the most intense, hard fought playoff games of 2023 yet, the Boston Celtics finally beat the Atlanta Hawks 128-120 in Game 6 to win the series 4-2 and book their place in the Second Round.
I really mean this when I say it: both teams deserved to move on and play for the NBA title.
As a Celtics fan, I’ve been following this series a lot closer than most NBA pundits and the usual media talking heads (and I’m not talking about the TNT crew) have let on with some of the comments made about the series. And, let me just restate that both the Celtics and the Hawks gave everything they had in their, respective, tanks to win this series, and fought tooth and nail until the dying moments.
After two underwhelming opening games that saw the Celtics blow out the Hawks 112-99 in GM.1 and 119-106 in GM.2, something must have clicked with this Hawks roster as they played like the NBA contenders I thought they were going to be at the start of the season. Trae Young was simply sensational as he posted series averages of 29.2 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 10.2 APG, 1.7 SPG, and 0.7 BPG, while he closed out the series with 4-straight 30-point performances.
Moreover, Dejounte Murray showed why the Hawks gave up so many draft assets for him in the offseason as he averaged 23.0 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 6.8 APG, and 2.0 SPG, while he had a Double-Double in Game 6 with 14 PTS, 7 REB, and 14 AST. Honestly, I was unsure how Trae Young was going to fit into the future of the Hawks franchise after Nate McMillian was fired back in late February as this team was rudderless and heading for a disastrous season outside the playoffs.
And, with Young infamously getting into fights with both McMillian and his predecessor Lloyd Pierce, I was getting the feeling Young’s personal glories and wants were worth more to him than the welfare of the team. Thankfully, I was wrong.
Hiring Quinn Snyder to lead this franchise might be the single most important thing GM Landry Fields will ever do as the general manager of the Hawks as the former Jazz HC has not only gotten this team to play his fast, efficient, 3-point-focused run-and-gun style of basketball at a high level (yeah, that’s a mouthful to write down, but Snyder is 10-11 in his brief stint as coach), but he’s also gotten Trae Young back on board.
And that was not an easy task after McMillian’s reign.
Nevertheless, if the Hawks had more prolific big men scorers, then I think they win this series. Clint Capella averaged just 8.3 PPG, Saddiq Bey averaged 7.5 PPG, Onyeka Okongwu averaged just 6.0 PPG, and John Collins, who was the Hawks best big man in the series, only averaged 11.3 PPG for himself.
Yes, Robert Williams (8.5 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 1.5 APG, 1.0 SPG, 1.3 BPG) and Al Horford (5.8 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.2 SPG, 2.2 BPG) are menacing defenders, but your highest scoring big man has to get more than just 11.2 points every game to beat a team like the Celtics.
Because if you don’t, then the Celtics perimeter players will blow you away before you know what’s happening.
For as much as I’ve praised the Hawks, this series really should have been ended in 5 as the Celtics took the Hawks far too lightly early on.
Like I said, the Celtics got a false sense of security after hammering the Hawks in Games 1 and 2 as they started playing far too lackadaisical and made basic mental errors.
Now, thankfully, Jayson Tatum (27.2 PPG, 10.o RPG, 5.3 APG, 1.2 BPG), Jaylen Brown (26.7 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 3.0 APG, 1.2 SPG), Derrick White (17.3 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 3.5 APG, 1.3 BPG), and Marcus Smart (16.7 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 5.2 APG, 1.7 SPG) made up for it by scoring 16+ points per game, but the Celtics being too relaxed for a playoff environment was the story of Games 3 and 5.
Anyways, I’m just glad that the Celtics are moving on to the next round and have a good chance of reaching the Eastern Conference Finals with Joel Embiid, the presumptive MVP winner, playing through some knee sprain.
And, I know they won’t take the 76ers lightly given the C’s and 76ers are the highest ranked seeds in the East with the Bucks exit, while they’re also the two teams who have faced each other the most in NBA playoff history (21 times, to be exact).
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