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Game Preview: Celtics at Hawks



The Atlanta Hawks go for their sixth straight victory on Friday when they host the Boston Celtics.

Atlanta received an excellent performance from its second unit on Wednesday and defeated the Sacramento Kings 121-104. Boston beat up on the Kings on Tuesday night, rolling to a 128-75 win. The Celtics have won two straight and seven of their past 10.

It will be the second meeting between the teams this season. Atlanta prevailed 110-99 on Nov. 17 and has won the past two games played in Atlanta.

The Hawks are finally healthy and living up to their preseason expectations. They lost five consecutive games before starting the current winning streak with a pair of big second-half wins. Atlanta is now three games below .500 and a half-game out of the 10th spot. Boston is No. 8, one game over .500, and two games ahead of Atlanta.

[Jayson] Tatum and [Jaylen] Brown have historically been tough against the Hawks. This season, Tatum is averaging 26 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists.

He put up 34 points, nine rebounds and five assists against the Hawks in November.

Brown, who grew up in the northern Atlanta suburbs, is averaging 24 points and 6.6 rebounds.

He missed the first game against Atlanta with a right hamstring strain.

"They are the two pillars and leaders of the team," Boston head coach Ime Udoka said. "When they come out and play with that intensity, everybody seems to follow suit."

Jaqua92 wrote:Hey guys. Coming from the Celtics board.

Should be a fun one tonight!

I'm curious, do you guys want Smart as much as some of us want Collins? Where do you guys stand on the (maybe unreliable) Collins/Smart talk?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

So, obviously, Shams reported there’s growing frustration from you, and he linked you to possibly being included in a deal for Ben Simmons. What would you like to say about the report and your frustration?

When you read the article and go back and look at it — sometimes, the headline of the article is a lot more intriguing than what’s actually written — what I didn’t like is he took a quote from my postgame press conference and sort of created a dialogue from it talking about my usage is down. In terms of voicing it and saying something, of course, I am frustrated. We’re not doing well. You could say he’s right, but I haven’t outwardly spoken to anyone or voiced my frustration directly to my teammates. That, I feel like, gets lost a bit in the dialogue but, of course, I’m as frustrated as anyone is on this team as we’re losing and not doing as well as we should.

I understand where you’re coming from. The quote used was when I asked you about the recurring theme of you guys not having defensive intensity in numerous games, such as the Lakers game, which is when you said what you said.

Jaqua92 wrote:I'm curious, do you guys want Smart as much as some of us want Collins? Where do you guys stand on the (maybe unreliable) Collins/Smart talk?