A look back at the many ways the Hawks choked away Game 4 against the Celtics
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| Standing still and letting the clock out run proved to be an ineffective final play for Atlanta. |
With 33 seconds left in the first half on Sunday, an Isaiah Thomas hoop put the Celtics up 46-45. Boston then failed to score for the next 5:11 of game time, and the Hawks used a 17-0 run to build a 62-46 lead midway through the third quarter.
Things were looking bleak for the C's, but some spectacular play from Thomas, Marcus Smart and Jonas Jerebko helped get them back in it. Maybe of even greater significance though, was the fact that Atlanta also inexplicably lost the ability to put the ball in the basket:
Four minutes into the third quarter, Kent Bazemore hit a 3 to put the Hawks up 62-46. From that point on, Atlanta shot just 12-46 (26.1%)— CelticsLife.com (@CelticsLife) April 25, 2016
After blowing the 16-point lead, a pair of late three-pointers from Jeff Teague rescued the Hawks and put them back up by two with only 20 seconds remaining in the ballgame. However, a breakdown on defense let Thomas slip through the lane and tie things up with 15 seconds to go:
Isaiah Thomas turned this, right here, into a somewhat easy game-tying layup: pic.twitter.com/QrO0GNGT01— Jay King (@ByJayKing) April 25, 2016
Still, Atlanta had plenty of time to win the game in regulation. But the Hawks didn't bother to actually run a play, and they never even got a shot off:
Hawks' Jeff Teague makes an absolute mess of final possesion in Game 4 vs. Celtics pic.twitter.com/KESiayyO53— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) April 25, 2016
On Teague's end-of-regulation possession: "The worst possession in the history of the game" -Sir Charles on @NBAonTNT— Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam) April 25, 2016
Isaiah on his last possession defense: "Don't give me no credit on that." He didn't know what they were trying to do either.— Paul Flannery (@Pflanns) April 25, 2016
Paul Millsap says the Hawks' final play was for Jeff Teague "to make a play for us."— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) April 25, 2016
Really? How about giving it to the guy who went for 45 that night?
Despite all of this, Atlanta had an opportunity to redeem itself in overtime. That didn't go so well:
In overtime the Hawks were 1 for 11 and the Celtics were 4 for 5.— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) April 25, 2016
The Celtics outscored the Hawks 12-3 in the extra period en route to a 104-95 victory. Amazingly, Atlanta hasn't won an overtime game, regular season or playoffs, in more than two years:
Hawks last overtime win was 2+ years ago, 3/18/14. Including playoffs, they've lost 9 straight in OT. Do we read anything into that?— Mark Van Deusen (@LucidSportsFan) April 25, 2016
Boston is 10-1 all time in the postseason against Atlanta. I'm starting to like the chances of it becoming 11-1.
Follow Mark Van Deusen on Twitter @LucidSportsFan
