BOSTON - Kevin Garnett had 27 points and 19 rebounds, Paul Pierce scored 23 and the Boston Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks 106-83 Friday night, their third blowout win of a season in which they're off to their best start in 20 years.
The Celtics took the lead for good midway through the second quarter, stretched it to 17 points early in the third and led by between 8 and 23 the rest of the way.
Their 4-0 record is their best opening since 1987-88 when they won their first six games, finished with 52 wins and went on to the Eastern Conference finals, the last time the trio of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish got there.
Now the Celtics have a new Big Three that is quickly leaving behind the bad memories of last season's 24-58 record, the second worst in club history.
Garnett had six assists and posted his fourth double-double of the season when he picked off his 10th rebound in the first minute of the second quarter. He had 66 in 76 games for Minnesota last season.
Boston's third star, Ray Allen, scored 14 points. Another newcomer, Eddie House, came off the bench to score 19, hitting four of five 3-pointers.
Atlanta's two wins this season were against teams that won at least 60 games last season, Dallas and Phoenix. The Hawks led 31-30 before Allen's short jumper gave Boston the lead for good and began an 11-2 run that made it 41-33 with 4:49 left in the second quarter.
The Hawks cut that to 47-39 but the Celtics finished the half with an 8-2 spurt in which Pierce had six points.
Atlanta came back again, trimming the lead to 67-59 with 2:42 left in the third quarter. But the Celtics answered by outscoring the Hawks 19-9 and taking an 86-68 lead with 8:08 remaining.
Garnett started that rally with a short turnaround jumper, House hit a 3-pointer and Garnett sank two free throws before Marvin Williams' tip drew the Hawks to 74-61 at the end of the third.
With Boston leading 79-66, Garnett sank another turnaround and Allen made a 14-footer. Josh Smith countered with a jumper for Atlanta, but House ended the run with another 3-pointer.
The Celtics resumed the sharpshooting they displayed in their 119-93 win over Denver on Wednesday night when they made 64.5 percent of their shots, their best since Nov. 24, 1993. On Friday night, they hit 61.2 percent while holding the Hawks to 42.9.
The Celtics dominated in other categories. They outrebounded the Hawks 39-29 and had 30 assists to 17 for Atlanta.
Wednesday
December 25th, 2024
3:48PM
