The first three-and-a-half quarters of Thursday night’s Game 6 in Atlanta consisted of pure back-and-forth insanity between the Celtics and Hawks until Boston finally had enough.
After experiencing 22 lead changes and 15 ties, the Celtics buckled down on both ends in crunch time and created enough separation to pull away for a 128-120 win while also punching their ticket to a date with the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Boston closed out the last six minutes of regulation on an 18-7 run, which began with an 11-0 stretch. Every player on the court was locked in throughout that period; the Jays made huge plays in another tandem 30-point effort, Al Horford and Marcus Smart knocked down clutch 3-pointers, and everyone locked in on the defensive end.
“It was winning time,” said Jaylen Brown, who finished with a game-high 32 points and made 6-of-8 from 3-point range. “The adrenaline, just that will, that perseverance to finish the game. It was close. Both teams exchanged blows. We were both tired and we didn’t want to be the team going back home with an 'L,' so we just found a way to win.”
Both offenses were clicking throughout the majority of the game, but Boston’s defense separated itself late in the game. After allowing Atlanta to make 42 field goals through the first 42 minutes, the C’s limited the Hawks to just two such makes in the final six minutes.
All five guys were playing on a string defensively, though head coach Joe Mazzulla called out two players in particular for their crunch-time efforts on that end – the first being his starting point guard.
“I thought Smart was tremendous, especially late in the fourth quarter,” said the rookie head coach. “He got us organized and then he was the triggerman because of their hits, and they were blitzing and he made the right play.”
Trae Young, who scored 25 points in the first half and then just five in the second half, added that Smart’s one-on-one defense against him changed the game.
“Marcus was being way more aggressive, and he wasn’t leaving me as much, going to help,” said Young. “Early in the first half, they were playing more team defense and when he was helping, I was able to catch the ball with a live dribble and attack right away and create some space that way. But in the second half, he was more just connected to me. When I didn’t have the ball, he was still facing me and still connected to me.”
The second defender who earned praise from Mazzulla was Grant Williams. Despite playing limited minutes throughout the series, Williams earned his way onto the court during crunch time and contributed with versatility and high-energy plays.
“I thought Grant played a tremendous game and credit to him for his professionalism, for his humility to just constantly be ready,” said Mazzulla. “I thought he was a big part of our late-game defense because of our switching, and he really helped us in that regard, so credit to him.”
The Celtics had one of their best collective defensive moments of the season while defending a side-out play with 18 seconds left in a six-point game. Atlanta attempted to inbound the ball four different times from one spot near the right corner and failed all four times due to Boston’s suffocating defense. The first three times, the inbounder had to throw it off the closest defender to avoid a five-second violation, and the fourth time, they threw it across the court and straight out of bounds.
“We were locked in,” Jayson Tatum said of that play. “That felt like the longest possession ever, but we all were on the same page, communicating, switching at the point of contact, and it worked out.”
According to Tatum, he and his teammates could sense the knockout blow building despite the closeness in score throughout the majority of the game. It was only a matter of time before they rolled up their sleeves and took care of business, and they did so convincingly down the stretch.
“We could feel it,” said Tatum, who finished with 30 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists, two blocks, and zero turnovers. “Everybody was locked in, getting blocks, chasing down rebounds, hitting big shots. We’ve been in that situation before as a unit, just finding a way – finding a way to win.”