Saturday night in Georgia, the Atlanta Hawks defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first round. That’s what the official historical record will indicate.
Unofficially, the Cleveland Cavaliers won. They will play one of these teams in the Eastern Conference semifinals, barring an all-time sports upset at the hands of the Detroit Pistons.
Cleveland might have the least proven head coach of any Eastern Conference playoff team. The Cavaliers might not like each other or get along famously as a group. However, they swept both the Hawks and Celtics in the playoffs last year, so you can imagine that LeBron James isn’t exactly quaking in his boots after Saturday’s game in the Peach State.
The Hawks and Celtics needed to dramatically improve in order to offer the mere (and slight) possibility that they could compete with the Cavs. In the wake of Atlanta’s 102-101 win in Game 1, it’s clear these teams have a very long way to go in order to match Cleveland’s standard.
Earlier on Saturday, the Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers played a similarly aesthetic disaster of a game. The winning Pacers hit 43 percent of their shots, the losing Raptors 38.
In the day’s second Eastern Conference playoff game, the winning Hawks hit just under 41 percent of their field goals, the losing Celtics just barely more than 36 percent.
The teams’ three-point shooting was ghastly: a combined 16 of 62, just barely better than 25 percent.
The Hawks hit only 5 of 27 threes. Kyle Korver, the man they need to hit shots in order to space the floor for point guard Jeff Teague and the rest of the offense, went 0 for 7 from 3-point land and 1 for 10 overall.
This was the winning team.
How did the Hawks win? Teague was able to make remarkable plays such as this one when Atlanta built its 17-point halftime lead:
Jeff Teague going to work https://t.co/qBYiyGCnuh
— The Comeback NBA (@TheComebackNBA) April 16, 2016
However, you can see above that Boston’s Avery Bradley forced Teague to make high-degree-of-difficulty plays. When Bradley injured his hamstring in the fourth quarter (with Boston leading as a result of a furious second-half comeback), Teague was able to get to the rim again. Bradley had largely prevented those rim attacks after halftime.
The Hawks were fortunate they got what they could on offense in the final few minutes of the game. Atlanta hit just one three-pointer in the second half. Getting steals and runouts from their defense enabled the Hawks to score in transition without need for either a set offense or a perimeter jumper.
It was barely enough… because of the Bradley injury, yes, but also because the Celtics couldn’t shoot, either. Marcus Smart was decent, making 3 of 6 triples, and Isaiah Thomas was also a solid 4 of 10 from long distance. The rest of the Celtics, however, finished 4 of 19 beyond the arc. Late-game triples by Evan Turner and Jonas Jerebko were wide open, as good as Brad Stevens or any coach could reasonably hope for. However, Boston built a house of bricks in this game, and that’s why Atlanta wasn’t punished for its own display of masonry.
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer watched his team survive, even though Korver endured a miserable outing; Thabo Sefolosha — injured in last year’s playoffs — didn’t make an impact; and backup point guard Dennis Schroder was his worst self.
This was certainly a game lost by the loser more than it was won by the winner.
There would be more to say about this game and this series, but sadly, a lot of what took place was overshadowed by the hamstring injury to Bradley, whose presence on the floor was revealed to be absolutely essential, given the way he defended Teague.
The outlook does not appear to be very good:
Well this is bad pic.twitter.com/ETS1gSvzyg
— Pat Bradley ☘️🏀💰🏈 (@PatBradley_) April 17, 2016
If Bradley can’t play, the Celtics will still give it their all… but they’ll be shorthanded and underequipped in one of the matchups they have to manage well. Boston did not have to outplay Teague in this series, but it did have to contain him. Bradley held Teague in check for most of the second half, but his injury showed that if he’s not on the floor in crunch time, Teague can get to the rim even in the midst of a game in which his teammates can’t hit a perimeter jumper to save their lives.
We’ll just have to see if Avery Bradley can give it a go. Regardless of that answer, it seems almost impossible from this vantage point to figure out how either the Celtics or the Hawks can find a way past the Cleveland Cavaliers once this first-round series ends.
