The Atlanta Hawks got a huge win against the Miami Heat in the Play-In Tournament to make it through the playoffs as the seventh seed. That’s the good news for Trae Young and company.
The bad news: they’ve set up a tough matchup with the defending Eastern Conference champions Boston Celtics. Not much has changed since the Celtics were in the NBA Finals, trying to knock off a destiny-driven Golden State Warriors in a grueling series.
Except now, these Celtics already have a taste of NBA basketball at the highest level, and the appetite for banner No. 18 is getting stronger. It’s not looking good immediately for the Hawks.
Most compelling storyline
These two teams both have the offensive firepower with the potential for a high-scoring, high-octane shootout. There are elite bucket-getters across the two rosters, from Jayson Tatum and Trae Young down to their eighth to ninth guy.
What makes it an interesting matchup is that while the Celtics can match the Hawks point for point, they also have a high-level defense. In all metrics on the defensive end, Boston ranked in the top 10. The Hawks, conversely, ranked in the bottom 10.
If the Celtics are set to make another deep playoff run this year (and set up a rematch with the defending champs Golden State Warriors), then employing and testing out their defense to stop a team like the Hawks would be necessary.
X-factors
The Hawks will rely heavily on their backcourt of Young and Dejounte Murray to steer the offense. This is why Marcus Smart, last year’s Defensive Player of the Year, is Boston’s X-factor to lock them down.
For the Hawks, they’ll need more weapons outside of Young and Murray to add to the scoring. Whether it’s Bogdan Bogdanovic or Saddiq Bey, someone else will have to bring in a breakthrough game or two to extend the series.
Winning blueprint
The Hawks unexpectedly beat the Heat by dominating the boards. Clint Capela ended up with 21 rebounds, which is more important than it looked in the stat sheet.
The rebounding dominance—extending to Capela’s teammates—led to a 20-point advantage in second-chance points. If they can replicate and sustain that against the Celtics, then it’s going to be a long and fun series.
However, history isn’t on their side. The Celtics are 7-1 all-time versus the Hawks in the playoffs and won the season series, 3-0. The winning blueprint for Boston is simple: just do what they do.
