Celtics at Atlanta Hawks Game 5: Game thread

  • Hawks starters: Jeff Teague, Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, Josh Smith and Al Horford. Zaza Pachulia (foot) is out. All Celtics players are available.
  • Larry Drew on why he’s using this lineup: “One, just to give it a different look and see if it will kind of jump start us a little bit. It gives us an opportunity to move Joe back to some two. It makes us bigger so we can do a few more things defensively in making some adjustments in Game 5. And I just think its’ time. After you play four games in the playoffs, obviously it’s a game of adjustment, and you try to do things to benefit your team. It’s time to give us a different look and see if it will jump start us with Al back in the starting lineup, Marvin in the staring lineup, bringing Kirk [Hinrich] off the bench.”
  • Drew on Horford’s condition: “Physically he feels fine. I wouldn’t say he’s in tip-top shape but he’s in playing shape. He didn’t experience any discomfort with the pec the other day [Game 4]. There was a play early he went for the ball and it was pulled back. I thought that would be kind of the test with him. He said after the play he was fine and he wasn’t sore after that. That was kind of the test. I know coming back he was waiting for that moment to see if he could withstand a collision or pull-back with the injury.”
  • Drew on how he’ll use Horford: “He’ll only play a certain amount of minutes. I could have brought him off the bench but instead of letting his shoulder and chest stiffen up while he’s on the bench elected to throw him out there while he’s warm. We want to get off to a fast start and he certainly brings an energy.”
  • Drew on the benefits of the lineup for Joe: “He’s had to defend Paul [Pierce] all four games. I kind of want to give it a different look and see if that can generate more offense out of him. He’s been chasing Paul around for four games and that can put a little wear and tear on you. We’ve decided to give it a look.”
  • Drew on pushing the pace with this lineup: “When we are at our best is when [Al] and Josh rebound the ball and bring it out on the dribble. We’ve been missing that with him out of the lineup. It makes us a much better running team when we have all five guys involved in the break.”
  • Drew on switching defensively: “Whether we start the game with our switching remains to be seen but it does give us a flexibility. The sets we defend we are in more switchable situations. A lot of the things they do run we can play it a little differently now going a little bit bigger at the two spot.”
  • Drew on matchups: “They will have to make a decision who they match up with against Joe and Marvin. If they stay with Pierce on Joe, there’s a size advantage with Marvin on [Avery] Bradley.”
  • Drew said Josh (knee) won’t be on limited minutes: “This is a do-or-die situation. Al we will definitely keep an eye on, but those other guys probably will play extended minutes given the situation.”
  • Josh on his knee: “It’s pretty good. I’m in it to win it. I’m here to play so I can’t worry about my knee.”
  • Joe on if the new lineup will help: “I don’t know. Hopefully it works out for the best for us. At this point we really don’t know. I guess it’s just a gut feeling.”
  • Joe on if moving to shooting guard will result in more touches: “I don’t know. We’ll see.”
  • Josh on Boston’s D: “With the defense they play they tend to over-help at times and we haven’t made them pay yet. We’ve got to be able to take our time and knock down the open shot.”
  • Joe on Game 4: “We haven’t had a game like Game 4 in quite some time. It was mind-boggling, honestly. I couldn’t get why we came out and played so poorly after we were so close in Game 3. I’m still puzzled from that. Hopefully Game 5 will be different.”
  • Joe on if he thinks Game 5 will be different: “Honestly I’m not sure. I just have to wait until we get between the lines. It’s easy to talk it but it’s different when you get on the court. Hopefully we will take a sense of pride and a sense of desperation and try to make it back to Boston.”
  • Josh on Game 4: “To me, to be honest, we played pretty good defense. We was with them on every shot, every catch, and they shot the ball extremely well, especially Paul Pierce in that third quarter when we were trying to make a push. We have got to to try to meet them right before they past halfcourt i guess to give ourselves a chance.”
  • Drew on Game 4: “When you lose a game like that, it’s deflating. But like I told our players I think we’ve had a great season in spite of that one game. That game is no reflection on the rest of our season. It happened. We’ve watched film, we’ve learned form it and now it’s time to move on. Yesterday I was still sensing guys were a little down. After our meeting we had yesterday it seemed to kind of rejuvenate them again. And then coming into shootaround today they were back to themselves.”

Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat

1,176 comments Add your comment

This is Gonna Get Ugly

May 8th, 2012
10:18 pm

Marvin for President!!

bigdave

May 8th, 2012
10:18 pm

No early offense!

Stevie Wondaaaa

May 8th, 2012
10:18 pm

“slim, if you are a Hawks fan why do you seem to delight in their troubles?”

He only hates Horford, who probably stole his girl back in the day.

northcyde

May 8th, 2012
10:18 pm

Game will come down to ISO JJ. Y’all know that right?

Rev in Tampa

May 8th, 2012
10:19 pm

JSS

May 8th, 2012
10:19 pm

What's gone rondo?

May 8th, 2012
10:19 pm

Where’s Rondo? The mystery of the Hawks is going through Joe. Don’t go through Joe. Sit Joe.

Harry Hawk

May 8th, 2012
10:19 pm

Even if they win, you can tell that the Celtics don’t have it tonight.

Rev in Tampa

May 8th, 2012
10:19 pm

Nice pass Josh

Najeh Davenpoop

May 8th, 2012
10:19 pm

Big money man stepping up in the 4th quarter. That’s Josh I’m talking about.

Astro Joe

May 8th, 2012
10:19 pm

There goes Josh… just as I predicted. Time for Joe to join the party.

bigdave

May 8th, 2012
10:20 pm

Please stop hating the dude.

Slimjr

May 8th, 2012
10:20 pm

Ray

May 8th, 2012
10:17 pm

“Have any of you guys met in real life off this blog?”

Me and Dr Mary B got a thang goin’ on ;)

Hahahaha…

Najeh Davenpoop

May 8th, 2012
10:20 pm

Al leads the break and turns it over. Waiting for the reaction…

Luke Cage

May 8th, 2012
10:20 pm

Sup with these big men trying to run the point??

bigdave

May 8th, 2012
10:20 pm

Now say something bout Al…

Rev in Tampa

May 8th, 2012
10:20 pm

Ha, Ha, Ha. Travel on Pierce

Rev in Tampa

May 8th, 2012
10:21 pm

JJ is feeling it

drmaryb.(*_*).

May 8th, 2012
10:21 pm

STATS FG 3PFG FT

HAWKS 46.2% 50.0% 85.7%

CELTICS 42.6% 33.3% 80.0%

Mac-Town (478)™

May 8th, 2012
10:21 pm

bigdave

May 8th, 2012
10:21 pm

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaah

Melvin

May 8th, 2012
10:21 pm

Let’s Go Hawks….

Rod from College Park

May 8th, 2012
10:21 pm

Josh don’t look so bad now huh?

High-sider

May 8th, 2012
10:21 pm

All Atlanta Hawks’ big men want to be Magic f-ckin’ Johnson [A. Horford and Josh Smith]. smh.

Harry Hawk

May 8th, 2012
10:21 pm

The Hawks are gonna win this. If they win the next two, I’ll respect them. Anything less and I won’t.

kwooden

May 8th, 2012
10:21 pm

Bad drive by Horford, but great defense on Pierce! Joe to the floater, Doc needs a TO!

Shamrock

May 8th, 2012
10:22 pm

I pissed on mysefl

Najeh Davenpoop

May 8th, 2012
10:22 pm

So crucial that the Hawks come out of this timeout running some good plays. 7 point lead with 4 minutes left — if you get a couple more good possessions, you can put the dagger in the coffin. If you start going iso-Joe and dribbling out the shot clock and launching sh-tty jumpers, the Celtics are going to get right back in this game.

Hawkfan

May 8th, 2012
10:22 pm

We all got a thang for dr Mary b. how could we not? One hot blogger

DawgNole

May 8th, 2012
10:22 pm

Our bigs think they’re guards.

The Celts blew a lot of energy on that comeback. Just have to play smart now, and it’s back to Boston.

rob

May 8th, 2012
10:23 pm

Finish this thing out

northcyde

May 8th, 2012
10:23 pm

Smith coming up HUGE this quarter. Now the Celtics are afraid do double JJ and he gets to go one on one and makes the floater.

Great team effort by the starters.

NOW IT’S ALL ABOUT STOPS. PLAY DAMN DEFENSE!!”

bigdave

May 8th, 2012
10:23 pm

D down.. no quick hitters. They might look for a 3 ball here.. keep em in short clock

drmaryb.(*_*).

May 8th, 2012
10:23 pm

STATS FG 3PFG FT
HAWKS 47.8% 50.0% 85.7%

CELTICS 42.9% 33.3% 80.0%

TIME OUT

Astro Joe

May 8th, 2012
10:23 pm

Dumb play by Al on the fast break. Great effort by Teague on the Pierce shot attempt. Celtics have one more run… please, give these Hawks a Red Bull or sumthin’.

yodaddybrother

May 8th, 2012
10:23 pm

Horford makes the same dumb play Josh smith makes….

Why don’t they give the ball to the PG on the break??? Killing us 9 out of 10 times.

Slimjr

May 8th, 2012
10:23 pm

Josh has stepped up big with the nice passes…

Bigger Lineup?

What's gone rondo?

May 8th, 2012
10:24 pm

A good shot by Joe. Don’t be fooled. Josh always says, “We are at our best when we pass the ball the ball around.” Who doesn’t pass the ball around? Who creates the bad vibe in their locker room, a dude named Joe? Sit Joe. Tell Marvin, Josh, Al, and Teague to play basketball.

High-sider

May 8th, 2012
10:24 pm

Rod from College Park,

Come on in, man. Josh Smith and Al Horford need to give the ball to Teague or one of the other guards to lead the [fast]break.

Walt Frazier

May 8th, 2012
10:24 pm

Najeh Davenpoop

Al leads the break and turns it over. Waiting for the reaction…
———————————————————————————–
There are the similarities between Josh & Al; they both think they are point guards and can go coast to coast at will. You see where at got Al-that was a 2 or 3 more they could have had. It usually comes back to bite them in the butt.

5150 UOAD

May 8th, 2012
10:24 pm

People people People STOP Just STOP. If it wears RED & Black in Georgia I SUX and will NEVER be a Champion. Well not unless it wears a LEOTARD.

What's gone rondo?

May 8th, 2012
10:24 pm

Enter your comments here

Najeh Davenpoop

May 8th, 2012
10:24 pm

HERE COMES ISO-JOE WTF

Jo Bling

May 8th, 2012
10:24 pm

Hawks better be ready cause the Celts are about to turn it up again.

What's gone rondo?

May 8th, 2012
10:24 pm

That’s Joe.

Astro Joe

May 8th, 2012
10:25 pm

I HATE those hero shots.

Slimjr

May 8th, 2012
10:25 pm

#15 should play the pt. forward hes really good……Yawn…

Najeh Davenpoop

May 8th, 2012
10:25 pm

And that 7 point lead is down to 3 just like that. SAME OLD DUMB HAWKS

Luke Cage

May 8th, 2012
10:25 pm

Again we NUT UP!!

Harry Hawk

May 8th, 2012
10:25 pm

Ray Allen…

Cold-blooded…