Celtics Feel More Prepared for 76ers After Battle With Hawks

After the first two games of the first-round series between the Atlanta Hawks and the Boston Celtics, many were under the impression that a sweep was on its way.

With Boston collecting two wins with a point differential of plus-26 in favor of the second-seeded squad, the Celtics were in complete control at the start. However, the Hawks fought back in Game 3.

As the series went to Atlanta for Games 3 and 4, the Hawks snagged a 130-122 victory in Game 3. Unfortunately, they couldn’t build on that success two nights later as the Celtics collected an eight-point win before heading home.

The Celtics had an opportunity to complete the gentleman’s sweep in Boston on Tuesday night, but Trae Young and the Hawks stunned the crowd with a 119-117 victory to force a Game 6.

With the Hawks getting the suspended Dejounte Murray back in the fold while heading home to play in front of their own crowd, a Game 7 was certainly possible. Finally, though, the Celtics took care of business. With an eight-point victory, the Celtics defeated the Hawks 4-2 and punched their ticket to the second round of the playoffs.

The Celtics will now battle the Philadelphia 76ers, who are coming off of a first-round sweep against the Brooklyn Nets. While the public perception surrounding the Celtics is that they let Atlanta hang around for too long, which could be an indication they are weaker than initially thought, the Celtics see the first-round battle much differently when looking back on it.

“I know the narrative of we were supposed to sweep them, it’s supposed to be a cakewalk, but it's the playoffs,” said Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum. “That’s why it’s so special.”

“Each game is different,” he continued. “Each series is different. I will say, at this point, playoffs haven’t gone as everybody expected. There’s been some high-level basketball being played by individual players, teams, and great coaching. It was a good… It was a great test for us. They definitely tested us to come in here in this environment. They had the utmost confidence throughout this game. You could see it the way they played and the shots they were hitting. The crowd was intuitive. That was a fun game to be a part of.”

The Hawks have proven many times in the past that they are hard to bring down. Even in the Game 6 matchup on Thursday, the Celtics were heavy favorites, but they spent the majority of the matchup exchanging blows with Atlanta, who kept the game tight throughout the night.

While they didn’t win in the end, the Celtics commended the Hawks for their fight after the series concluded — and they feel better equipped to face a hungry Sixers team that has a lot at stake in the second round of the 2023 playoffs.

“The way I describe it is like, in the playoffs, you got basketball, execution, and you got this like fight that’s kind of going on. Atlanta, they might not have had all of the X’s and O’s, but they fought,” said Celtics star Jaylen Brown. “They fought us. They offensive rebounded, they played hard, good effort, they used athleticism, they didn’t back down from no challenges. That’s what we needed to step up was the fight of the game. That’s where we had to match that intensity in the last couple of minutes down the line.”

The Sixers are looking to get past the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Meanwhile, the Celtics are working to repeat as Eastern Conference Champions and hope to find different results in the NBA Finals this time around.

The Celtics and the Sixers are set to battle it out for Game 1 of the second round on Monday, May 1.