Atlanta Hawks manage to keep the series alive by edging out the Boston Celtics 87-86 in a thriller at the Philips Arena
All five Atlanta Hawks starters made sizable contributions to win Game 5, 87-86 against the Boston Celtics, helping them stay alive in this Eastern Conference first round of the playoffs.
The Hawks were led by Al Horford who was only returning to the starting line up since January. The centre racked up 19 points on an 8 of 15 shooting night to go along with 11 boards in the game. Jeff Teague followed him up with 16 points and 5 assists. Joe Johnson also played well to score 15 points and Marvin Williams also recorded 15 points to his name.
Josh Smith followed Horford with double-double figures of his own, signing off with 13 points and 16 boards on the night.
Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett led the Boston scoring with 16 points each, however Pierce failed to get to the free throw line in the entire matchup. Rajon Rondo followed them up with 13 points and 12 assists.
Ray Allen came off the bench to score 15 points on the night which included three triples whereas the offensive slump continued for Avery Bradley, who could only manage 2 points in the entire game.
The C`s held the upper hand in early parts of the matchup as they held an 15-9 lead in the first quarter. Even though the Hawks were able to cut the lead down to 2 at one point of the period, however Boston, were able to sustain the pressure and closed out the quarter with the score at 21-15.
Boston quickly got their lead into double figures in the second quarter, courtesy of a 7-3 spurt. Hawks however responded to that with an 8-1 surge of their own to cut the lead down to 3 and then with 45.3 seconds left in the half, they tied it at 37.
With 10.1 second remaining on the clock, Teague dropped a long range bomb to give Atlanta its first lead, but just when Atlanta thought, they could go into the locker rooms on a high; Rondo hit a buzzer beating three-pointer to level up the proceedings at 40 apiece.
Atlanta got off and running in the second half with an 8-2 run, but by the 5:28 mark, Boston were able to cut it down 2. Hawks put an end to that rally with a Johnson jump shot and that offensive sequence was prolonged into a 10-0 run to attain back the double figure lead.
However by the end of the third quarter, Boston closed out with an 10-0 run of their own to make the score 64-66.
The Greens quickly snatched the lead in the fourth and were leading by 4 after the first three minutes. But the Hawks hung tough and there was not much to separate the two teams after the first five minutes, with the C’s leading by 74-73. That was when the hosts pulled off a 10-2 spurt to make it 7 point game.
The C`s rallied back with a 7-0 run to tie the game up at 83. In the ensuing passage Horford changed the game with back to back two pointers and even though Pierce responded with a triple, the Hawks were able to hold on in the end allowing the C`s to only offer one more attempt at the rim.
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