Enemy Chatter: Hawks Showed Championship Resolve

I often wonder what opposing teams, their beat reporters and bloggers are saying about the Celtics after playing the Celtics. Here's a dose of 'enemy chatter' from Atlanta.

Well, the Celtics got angered, and the Hawks showed the championship resolve. Without getting into what was flagrant and what was not, both teams had a lot to complain about. And the officiating was not even that bad. Just normal bad, made acute by overreacting and three technical fouls in a row.

The Hawks have seen the story before. Bad calls lead to Josh Smith pouting, Marvin disappearing, Horford wanting, and Joe ball hogging.  And coming off a blowout loss, it is absurd to call Atlanta's discipline championship effort, but if you had to choose one team that looked to have the focus tonight, it was the Hawks. And there is no denying it.

Peachtree Hoops

Showing tenacity that had been missing for some time, the Hawks pulled off perhaps the steal of the season, a 102-96 win over Boston Monday night. They came back from 14 points down in the third quarter, equaling their largest comeback of the season by clamping down defensively on the Celtics and showing icy will on the offensive end.

"This team has grown," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "I don't care how you cut it. We don't have to be considered as one of the elite teams, but we're a good team in the NBA that's fighting for something."

AJC - Hawks Take Third From Celtics

Tom Thibodeau has a reputation as a defensive mastermind but, as acting head coach, he repeated the same mistake Doc Rivers made in Game 4 of the 2008 first-round playoff series: leaving Ray Allen to try and guard Joe Johnson one-on-one...

The Hawks also turned the predictability of their insistence upon switching on screens into an advantage by repeatedly switching Williams or Jamal Crawford onto Kendrick Perkins or Davis, inviting Boston to play fourth quarter possessions through those two rather than Paul Pierce or Ray Allen. Davis scored nine points in the final quarter but that's a fair trade for Paul Pierce using just 4 of Boston's 19 fourth quarter offensive possessions, even before accounting for those four Pierce possessions resulting in two missed jump shots and two turnovers.

Hoopinion

There's one consistent theme - the veteran Celtics lost their composure, while the young Hawks maintained it.