Four reasons why the Boston Celtics DESTROYED the Atlanta Hawks, including a couple of near records

ATLANTA -- The Celtics shook off whatever malaise had been bugging them over the past few games to dominate the Hawks from start to finish at State Farm Arena.

They followed Jaylen Brown’s lead in the first quarter to build a double-digit lead. It grew to 24 at halftime thanks to some hot shooting, and the Celtics poured it on in the third to go up 40 at one point, and it was never a game after that.

Here are the four big reasons why the Celtics were able to dominate the Hawks, 132-106

Jaylen Brown went off in front of his hometown crowd

Brown’s high school retired his number on Friday, and on Saturday he showed why. Brown dominated the first quarter, at one point tying the entire Hawks team 18-all. He got an extended rest in the second quarter but still put up 11 more, including this tough finish through contact.

Jaylen Brown circus shot and 1! He has 25 points in the 1st half and gives the Celtics a 26 point lead pic.twitter.com/SlG3ok4v7T
— Danielle Hobeika (@DanielleHobeika) January 18, 2026

He cooled off a tiny bit in the third, but still got himself to 41 points on 14-30 shooting. He also went 11-12 from the line, which is nice to see after all the complaints about the officiating recently.

And even though I framed it as Brown showed out for his friends and family, he insists it’s not something that gets him going.

“I do not get excited, no,” he said. “In the past, I haven't really liked playing at home. It's a lot of distraction, being home, so many people. But as you get older and stuff like that, I'm starting to find my middle ground. So today was good.”

They had one of the best quarters in team history

They scored 52 points in the second quarter, which was two points shy of a team record. Brown and Sam Hauser alone combined for 29. Then Anfernee Simons added 11 off the bench and the Celtics shot 76% overall to win the quarter by 24 points.

The Celtics shot the lights out

What’s funny about this incredible shooting night is that they started out a pedestrian 3-9 from 3 in the first quarter. That changed in the second, when Boston went 11-15 from 3.

ELEVEN FOR FIFTEEN!

No wonder they scored 52 points.

Sam Hauser went 6-6 and Anfernee Simons went 3-4 to fuel that monster number.

Hauser kept rolling and got himself to 10 made 3s, making him the only Celtic to ever hit 10 3-pointers in a game twice. He went record hunting, trying to break Marcus Smart’s team record of 11, but he missed his next six 3-pointers before finally subbing out.

OH MY GOODNESS Sam Hauser steal and three has Luka Garza skipping on the sidelines pic.twitter.com/cXSsdaghnV
— Danielle Hobeika (@DanielleHobeika) January 18, 2026

“At that point it was just like, let's get them up, let’s see what happens. And then I got dead tired,” Hauser said. “The last couple, they were on line, they were just way short. So it is what it is. I'm glad Joe left me in to try. Appreciate my teammates for just kind of giving me the ball and being okay with that and let me kind of just throw them up there. But, maybe next time.”

Aside from that kind of hilarious stretch, the Celtics were pretty good about generating good looks from 3 by bending the Hawks defense. They really didn’t hunt 3s until Hauser’s outburst, so while the final number was 52 attempts, don’t be fooled by it. I thought they took great ones.

Their defense held the Hawks in check

Let’s be fair to the Hawks here, this was their first home game after a west coast swing, and their last game was in Portland on Thursday night. So them being less than perfect was to be expected.

On top of that, the Celtics defense largely did a good job. The Hawks shot 37% from the field

“We pride ourselves on our defense,” Brown said. “Our guys play hard, and we have a defensive game plan and we come out and try to execute it regardless of personnel. We got some guys that make multiple effort plays and all that type stuff adds up.”

OTHER QUICK NOTES

Derrick White was quiet with just seven points, but he had 12 assists and three steals. He has a knack for chasing guys down and back-tapping steals in transition.
Baylor Scheierman was 3-6 from 3 and had a nice all-around game with nine points, seven rebounds, four assists, and three steals.
The Celtics 17 turnovers for 19 Hawks points wasn’t great. Neither was the 13 offensive rebounds they gave up. We can let it slide in a game they led by 40, but there are definitely things Joe Mazzulla can highlight in tomorrow’s film session.

Next up: The Celtics finish their road trip with an MLK Day matchup with the Detroit Pistons.