Celtics Lose to Hawks: 88-83
The Celtics lost a close game to the Hawks on Friday night, 88-83.
Paul Pierce led all scorers with 25, Rondo finished with 13pts/10 rebs/5 assists. For the Hawks it was Crawford with 20pts and Johnson with 19 as they won a chippy game in Atlanta.
Pierce went 8-15 for 25 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 assists and was given a technical foul in the 1st quarter for a shove against Joe Johnson of the Hawks. Johnson fouled Pierce who thought it was a hard foul and gave a light shove to Johnson, the official standing next to him immediately gave Pierce the technical. From that point on it was relatively chippy and Jermaine O'Neal in his 2nd game back was given a double technical along with Zaza Pachulia.
The Celtics trailed 21-23 to the Hawks, but outscored them 31-21 in the second quarter to lead 52-44. The second half was back and forth with a frustrating fourth quarter where the Celtics scored just 15 points to Atlanta's 26.
The Celtics (52-23) played in Atlanta on the second night of a back-to-back, Thursday night they played in San Antonio where they beat the Spurs. The next game for the Celtics is at home on Sunday, April 3 at 6pm where they take on the Pistons. The Celtics are 2-4 in their last 6 games.
After tonight's game Boston is in the third spot in the conference falling a half game behind Miami who blew out Minnesota 111-92. They now trail 3 games out of the number 1 seed in the East. Chicago leads the Eastern conference by 2 1/2 over Miami.
