Celtics at Atlanta Hawks Game 2: Celtics 87, Hawks 80

• Larry Drew was asked if he had any regrets about not coming back with his starters earlier when the game got away from the Hawks in the fourth quarter. But his answer reveals he thought he was being scrutinized for bringing them back too soon.
• “I would have done the exact same thing,” he said. “I thought it was important to hold onto momentum and not allow them to get it. I tried to rest my guys as long as I could to give them a blow but I didn’t want the game to get away from us from a momentum standpoint. So I made the decision to try to bring them back and try to regain momentum. I will stick with that decision.”
• It turned out Josh Smith’s injury overshadowed Drew’s curious decision to not always have Joe Johnson and Josh on the floor with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. Smith suffered what the team said is a sprained left knee, apparently when he landed after a missed layup attempt with 5:14 to play, and appeared to later aggravate it while trying to block out Garnett for a rebound.
• Josh walked to the locker room under his own power and a team spokesman said he left the arena the same way. The Hawks said Josh will be re-evaluated tomorrow.
• Without Josh, Atlanta’s stagnating offense lost one of its best options at a critical time. Josh had scored 16 points on 21 shots up until that point while favoring jump shots and failing to get to the free-throw line. But the Hawks could have used some of his post-ups. He had a nice driving score and missed a clean look on a hook shot just before his injury.
• “He’s a guy we go to down the stretch from a post-up standpoint,” Drew said. “His energy going down to the end of a game and all the things he brings to the table, we were minus it. It certainly did have an impact on the last four minutes of the game. We tried to play small to match up and try to open up the floor a little bit but we didn’t have that low-post presence.”
• While Drew focused on resting his starters, Doc Rivers rode Pierce for the entire second half. Pierce made him look smart by delivering 20 points on 12 shots and nine rebounds after halftime (offsetting five ragged turnovers). “I wanted to give Paul a rest early in the fourth quarter but I just couldn’t with the way the game was going,” Rivers said.
• The weird thing about Drew’s approach is that he tried to manage his starters’ minutes late in the regular season. I thought that was because he could ride them in the playoffs.
• Watching Pierce and Joe Johnson in the second half reminded me of the story I wrote during last year’s Finals about nearly all NBA contenders have had first- or second-team All-NBA talent :” [J]ust 15 of 122 teams to make the finals — 12 percent — did so without a player considered among the league’s 10 best. That trend will continue this postseason: Miami’s LeBron James was named first-team All-NBA and teammate Dwyane Wade and Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki were voted to the second team.”
• And so there was Pierce outscoring the Hawks 16-10 as Boston turned a 65-54 deficit to am 81-75 lead. And there was Joe missing 7 of 10 shots after halftime, throwing the ball away twice at winning time (bailed out by a Pierce double dribble once), clanking a free throw with the Hawks down 81-77 and getting his driving shot blocked by KG.
• Joe stayed away from the iso’s for the most part and made some spot-up Js but he looked pretty passive for much of the night. Now I wonder if his response to the poor finish will be to try to take over in Game 3. The Hawks should hope not because Boston’s defense is just too good for him to still get his when he plays that way.
• The Celtics crowd Joe, bump him, swipe at the ball, clog the lane when he makes his move and generally don’t allow him to get comfortable. Joe just hasn’t shown he can overcome that kind of pressure to score at winning time in the playoffs.
• In the fourth quarter the Hawks scored 14 points on 19 shots, had five turnovers and recorded one assist on four field goals. All but four of those 14 attempts were in the paint with Jeff Teague’s missed 3-pointer the only desperation attempt.
• “In the fourth quarter they pushed us out of our sweet spots,” Drew said. “We couldn’t even initiate our offense the way we were supposed to. We just didn’t handle the pressure very well.”
• “I think it’s a combination of us allowing those guys to take us out of our offense by denying, pressing up and being physical,” Willie Green said. “That and then us not getting us into our plays quicker. I think we’ve got to put pressure on those guys when we get the rebound to get into our plays right away.”
• Kirk Hinrich was very good offensively in the first half (eight points on four shots), not so much after halftime–but who was for the Hawks? He worked hard on defense, where he has a knack for using his strength, positioning and relentlessness to be effective. He’s showed up in the playoffs.
• Teague had some big moments until he was 0 for 4 in 10 fourth-quarter minutes.
• Jason Collins played 22 minutes. He was plus-three but managed just two points and three rebounds and had two turnovers. The Celtics got him on the move more often this time.
• Ivan Johnson had a brutal offensive game (six points on seven shots, two turnovers in 20 minutes). It’s not the best idea for him to shoot jumpers or try to attack KG but give Ivan some credit for trying to make something happen as Atlanta’s offense halted.
• Marvin Williams was a team-worst -13 in 21 minutes and this was one of those times when that stat wasn’t misleading. Marvin wasn’t good defensively, couldn’t shake free to score. His six rebounds were the only highlight.
• Apparently all it took to make Tracy McGrady sour again was a quick hook in the second quarter. He didn’t look pleased while slowly walking to the bench. He had three points on zero shots, a turnover and a nifty blocked shot of Garnett at the time but can’t blame Drew for bringing Joe back in once Rivers summoned Pierce off the bench.
• Give the Celtics credit for winning this game, especially Pierce. If there was any doubt after Game 1, it’s clear now the Hawks are going to have to take this series from Boston. “This is a tough-minded basketball team and having a lot of veterans on your team helps with that,” Rivers said. “The only way we were going to win a game like that without Ray [Allen] and Rondo was if Paul had a game like this.”

Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat