<p>The Boston Celtics won their final regular-season game with offense. They'll need much better defense in the playoffs.</p><p>They beat the Atlanta Hawks 137-132 Wednesday night _ combining for the most points in a non-overtime NBA game this season _ and face Indiana, the team with the league's best record, in the first round starting Saturday.</p><p>"We should have been more serious, especially about our defense, if we want to do something in the playoffs," Jiri Welsch said.</p><p>The Celtics were 36-46 after ending a five-game slide and are longshots to beat the Pacers, who were 61-21. Indiana's strong defense isn't likely to let the Celtics get anywhere near their point total of Wednesday night. But the Hawks' running style is conducive to high-scoring games.</p><p>They scored at least 110 points in each of their last four games and entered their season finale with the goal of getting much more.</p><p>"That was our goal the last few games, to score 130," Atlanta's Travis Hansen said. "We wanted to push it and for guys to shoot open shots. Everyone had confidence they could make them."</p><p>The Hawks made 53 percent of their shots, while the Celtics hit 52 percent.</p><p>"If you allow a team to be able to shoot and score like that, you're not coming back in the second half," Boston coach John Carroll said. "You're going to get on a bus and go home."</p><p>The Celtics trailed 71-67 at halftime but went ahead to stay with 8:08 left in the third quarter, 82-79, on Walter McCarty's 3-pointer.</p><p>They were led by Marcus Banks with a career-high 28 points, Mark Blount with 27 points and 12 rebounds and Ricky Davis with 24 points. Boston played without Paul Pierce. He missed his second straight game with a sprained ankle but said he'll be ready for the playoffs.</p><p>Atlanta, which missed the playoffs for the fifth straight season, was led by Stephen Jackson and Chris Crawford with 24 points each and Jason Terry with 20 points and 11 assists. Eight of the nine Hawks who played reached double figures</p><p>"It wasn't necessarily a defensive struggle," Atlanta coach Terry Stotts said with a smile, "but both teams got a lot of steals to create offense in transition."</p><p>The 269 points tied the season-high in the NBA, set by Memphis and Atlanta in an overtime game March 29. The previous high for a regulation game was 262 by Washington and Atlanta on March 12.</p><p>Boston's previous high point total this season was 126 points at Seattle on Dec. 10. But the Hawks' total was a season-high against the Celtics, who gave up 127 at Sacramento on Dec. 17.</p><p>Terry's 3-pointer cut Boston's lead to 115-113 with 7:24 left, but the Celtics scored the next eight points on two free throws by Banks and two 3-pointers by Davis.</p><p>It was 135-124 before Atlanta cut the margin to 135-130 with 15 seconds left on 3-pointers by Terry and Jackson. Banks hit two free throws with 14 seconds to go and Crawford ended the scoring with a dunk.</p><p>"Hopefully, this is a confidence builder for our team," Banks said. "We've been struggling a little bit on the offensive and defensive ends, but I think we can get it together with a couple of hard practices."</p><p>Notes:@ Atlanta's Bob Sura had 14 points but sat out the second half with a strained left hamstring. ... Boston led 105-100 after three quarters, the first time since Jan. 26, 1993 _ when Portland led Golden State 107-102 _ that both teams had at least 100 points going into the fourth quarter. ... The Celtics added assistant coach Dana Barros, a 13-year veteran, to their active roster and also signed center Ernest Brown, who played in the National Basketball Development League this year. Barros scored seven points in 11 minutes.</p>
