Atlanta
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
Familiarity may or may not breed contempt but it certainly breeds close games. Reborn Celtic Antoine Walker told Paul Pierce to let him cover Al Harrington because he knows all his moves, then proceeded to strip Harrington for a fast break that gave the Celtics a three-point lead with thirty seconds left. But his wasn't the only face using familiarity to his advantage: former Celtic Tom Gugliotta abused Al Jefferson to the tune of 7 points and 9 rebounds in 29 bench minutes. In the end, it wasn't enough as the Hawks lost to the Celtics95-91, dropping their second straight game by a four-point decision.
Atlanta led almost the entire game after grabbing an early 7-0 lead and it wasn't until late in the fourth quarter that the lead vanished. The two teams fought it out over the last few possessions and if a deep Al Harrington jumper over Gary Payton (who also was a Hawk at one point but in name only) would have been ruled a three-pointer, it would have tied the game. As it stood, the refs ruled that the hangnail on his big toe squinted at the line and awarded him only two points. That forced Atlanta to foul, and Boston just kept hitting their free throws.
Seriously, it was a tough but fair call: in repeated reviews, Harrington was clearly touching the line. What's amazing is that the refs were able to accurately call it in the flow of the game.
Atlanta had a nice rebounding night and an edge in point guard play as Tyronn Lue seemed to do whatever he wanted when Payton was on him. It also helped that Payton missed probably more layups in this game than he has in the rest of his career. Lue led all Hawks with 25 points, just two shy of Pierce's game-high 27.
Pierce was back to his old fourth-quarter clutch magic and when he's on like that, there's nothing you can do. So it's fairly amazing that a micrometer of difference in shoe size for Harrington might have resulted in either overtime or a great chance for an Atlanta victory.
Bear in mind the Hawks were playing the division leaders of the Atlantic. Woeful as that division may be in comparison to others, it would still have been a fantastic win. Tomorrow night they go against the worst team in the Atlantic: by the transitive property, since they nearly beat the Celtics and the Celtics have a better record than the Raptors, the Hawks should have a great chance for a victory tomorrow.
NEXT GAME
The Hawks (10-50, fifth in the Southeast) hope to finish their three game road trip tomorrow night against the Toronto Raptors (26-35, fifth in the Southeast) with at least one game that's not a four-point loss. They fell to Milwaukee and Boston by four points each and Toronto is coming off of a 10-point victory over the Magic. It'll be a tough one for sure. The game starts at 7:00pm Eastern on Friday night, and will be broadcast on Turner South and NBA League Pass.
TEAM NOTES
Michael "Yogi" Stewart did not play (coach's decision) last night, a status he had long suffered in Boston, and one which he had hoped would end in Atlanta. Alas, it was not to be. Yogi is likely to continue warming the pine for the rest of the year, at which point he is not likely to be attracting very many offers.
INJURY UPDATE
Tony Delk(hand) andKevin Willis(back) are on the injured list.Donta Smithwas activated and had four points in nine minutes last night.
Steve Bulpett ofThe Boston Heraldwrites: Rookie Al Jefferson was showing off his new watch after the game when he looked over at Walker and said, ``Hey, 'Toine, you need to know what time it is?'' Walker may not have known the time, but he knew all about the watch, having spent some $10,000 on it as a gift to Jefferson for yielding his No. 8 when Walker came back to the Celts. Former Celtic Tom Gugliotta had a message for Jefferson before the game. ``I told Al he'd better get rid of that No. 7,'' said Gugliotta, who had vacated the digit when he went to the Hawks in the trade. ``It's not doing him any good either. His minutes have gone down since he started wearing it.''
Mark Murphy ofThe Boston Heraldwrites: Cyber 'Toine?``That's what they called him on my NBA Live (video) game when I was a junior in high school,'' Atlanta Hawks forward Al Harrington said of his former teammate. ``So yeah, I talked to Cyber 'Toine tonight.''
Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa ofThe Boston Heraldwrites: That Atlanta Hawks owner Steve Belkin took 225 of his TNT employees and their rels to the FleetCenter to watch his team take on the Boston Celtics and his ex-employee, Antoine Walker, last night.
Sekou Smith ofThe Atlanta Journal-Constitutionwrites: "I asked to guard Al because I'm familiar with some of his characteristics," said Walker, whom the Hawks traded two weeks ago after 53 games with the team. "I saw him sticking the ball out there and I wanted to see if I could make a play. The first time he got by me, but the second time he stuck it out there and the ball was just sitting there."... "This one is on me," Harrington said."We had it right there and I tricked it off with two big turnovers down the stretch. It's my fault because we did everything we needed to take this game."
Sekou Smith ofThe Atlanta Journal-Constitutionwrites: Blizzard-like conditions Tuesday night prevented the Hawks from making their normal post-game trip here after losing at Milwaukee. So they stayed the night in Milwaukee, flew here Wednesday morning and were greeted at the team hotel shortly after noon with an exquisite brunch. The featured speaker at the brunch, for about 10 minutes according to Al Harrington, was one of the team's owners, Steve Belkin, a Boston resident."He just told us that he and all the owners were proud of the way we've been playing through these tough times," Harrington said. "He knows it's a tough time for us. Losing like this is tough on everybody. He just wanted us to know that he has our back and we appreciate that."