{"id":70596,"date":"2024-03-26T00:39:46","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T04:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=70596"},"modified":"2024-03-26T00:39:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T04:39:46","slug":"hawks-make-history-against-eastern-conference-finals-contender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/26\/hawks-make-history-against-eastern-conference-finals-contender\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawks Make History Against Eastern Conference Finals Contender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After going down 44-22 in the first quarter, the Atlanta Hawks looked like they were in for a long night. To be fair, they still were. Fighting tooth and nail to win, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/game\/bos-vs-atl-0022301034\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">120-118<\/a>, the Hawks faced a steep uphill battle against the Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n<h2>Hawks Make History Against Celtics<\/h2>\n<p>With 4:23 remaining in the second quarter, Atlanta went down by 30 points against Boston. The Hawks were getting their offense out of the mud with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/murrade01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dejounte Murray<\/a>\u2019s playmaking. Then, a 3-pointer by Al Horford put the Celtics up, 68-38.<\/p>\n<p>Murray was firing away at this point and missing. In fact, while he had six assists in the second quarter, he went 1-5 from the field and 0-2 from 3. By the time the first-half buzzer sounded, Atlanta was still down by 28 points.<\/p>\n<p>Going into the locker room at halftime, the Hawks\u2019 main message was to be resilient.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got down early,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/huntede01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">De\u2019Andre Hunter<\/a> says. \u201cThe biggest thing we said going into halftime is \u2018we gotta fight. The refs not gonna give nothin\u2019. The Celtics not gonna give us nothin\u2019. We just gotta keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;\ud835\udde7\ud835\uddf5\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\uddef\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddf2\ud835\ude00\ud835\ude01 \ud835\ude01\ud835\uddf5\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf4 \ud835\ude04\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\ude00\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddf1 \ud835\uddee\ud835\ude01 \ud835\uddf5\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf3\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfa\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\uddf6\ud835\ude00, &#8216;\ud835\uddea\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude01\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddee \ud835\uddf3\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddf4\ud835\uddf5\ud835\ude01.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 De&#8217;Andre Hunter, to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TabTurnerTV1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TabTurnerTV1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nkKXclGFIS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/nkKXclGFIS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bally Sports: Hawks (@HawksOnBally) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HawksOnBally\/status\/1772443045180432799?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnybody can be beat any given night,\u201d Murray adds. \u201cIt\u2019s the NBA. We came out and competed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe was down 30\u2026 letting the referees and everything else get to us and we wasn\u2019t just playing our game,\u201d Murray says of the team\u2019s mindset during their forgettable first half. \u201c\u2026 Came out at halftime and everybody was ready to play defense and be aggressive. We got a great win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Hawks outscored the Celtics by 20 points (64-44) in the second half. Four players scored in double-figures, including Murray and Hunter. Meanwhile, Atlanta held Boston to just 1-15 shooting from 3 in the second half. The 3-point contests from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/krejcvi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vit Krejci<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/capelca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clint Capela<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mathega01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Garrison Mathews<\/a> stood out during that stretch.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Tonight\u2019s 30-point comeback marks Atlanta\u2019s largest comeback win in the play-by-play era. Per Elias Sports, entering tonight, the largest deficit the Hawks have overcome in a win since 1997-98, regardless of opponent, was 27 points vs. Boston on 1\/25\/13.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Hawks PR (@HawksPR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HawksPR\/status\/1772443337393402148?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Up by 1 with 17.5 seconds remaining, Hunter\u2019s final 3 closed the door on the Celtics.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dre hit the big one. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eWG2bkXcY6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/eWG2bkXcY6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bally Sports: Hawks (@HawksOnBally) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HawksOnBally\/status\/1772441143386452147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Their 30-point comeback was their largest in the play-by-play era. The Los Angeles Lakers were the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HawksPR\/status\/1772447674307948884?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">last team to come back<\/a> from 30 or more points, achieving the feat against the Dallas Mavericks in 2002.<\/p>\n<h3>An Imminent Return<\/h3>\n<p>The Hawks are now 8-7 since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/y\/youngtr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trae Young<\/a> sustained a finger injury that required surgery.<\/p>\n<p>Given a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/25\/nba-news-all-star-guard-likely-out-for-a-month-due-to-injury\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">four-week recovery timetable<\/a> on Feb. 25, Young\u2019s return should be imminent. Atlanta\u2019s next game is against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday. A rebuilding team that\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/24\/nba-blazers-join-warriors-company-rare-rookie-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">focused on player development<\/a> more than wins, the Hawks\u2019 upcoming matchup with the Blazers could be an ideal game to work Young back into the fold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After going down 44-22 in the first quarter, the Atlanta Hawks looked like they were in for a long night. To be fair, they still were. Fighting tooth and nail to win, 120-118, the Hawks faced a steep uphill battle against the Boston Celtics. Hawks Make History Against Celtics With 4:23 remaining in the second [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":70599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1608,5,62,3],"tags":[1875,1262,1349],"class_list":["post-70596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-nba","category-news","tag-deandre-hunter","tag-dejounte-murray","tag-trae-young"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}