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The Boston Celtics played hard all season for home-court advantage in the playoffs. They just didn't expect to need it this soon. The Celtics are back in Boston and hoping to finish off the pesky Atlanta Hawks on Sunday in Game 7. It's the last first-round series still going - a bit of a shock considering that the Celtics were the best team in the NBA during the regular season, and the Hawks the worst of the 16 to reach the postseason. "Clearly, we'd have loved to have won in four games. We'd have loved to have won it in five, (or) six," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said after a walkthrough at the team's practice facility on Saturday. "But we have to do it in seven. We earned the right to do it at home." Paul Pierce did not participate in Saturday's walkthrough because of a right hip bruise sustained in a collision with Hawks forward Marvin Williams in the fourth quarter of Game 6. Pierce was not available for comment after Friday's game or at Saturday's practice, but he is expected to play on Sunday.
The Hawks aren't so sure about Williams, who led the team with 18 points in Game 6 but left the game with a sprained left knee after knocking into Pierce. Williams took part in Saturday's walkthrough, but his knee was iced and heavily taped and he didn't try to bend it. "It's pretty sore right now," he said.
Joe Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 1:07 left on Friday night to give the Hawks 103-100 victory in Game 6 and force the series back to Boston. In a somber locker room afterward, the Celtics hashed out what went wrong. "Guys said what they had to say," point guard Rajon Rondo said. "Same as last time." The mood carried over onto the team plane, but soon the music came on and the team was back to its old ways.
"The sixth game is over with. Let it go. You had a chance to vent about it," guard Ray Allen said. "Now it's all about Game 7." Allen said he told his teammates that they should now consider themselves in an NCAA tournament-style competition. But Rivers saw a problem with that analogy. "You don't have a home game in the NCAA tournament," the coach said. "We can look at it all the ways we want to, but at 1 o'clock they are going to toss the ball up and we are going to have to come to play basketball."
When you look at the fact the Celtics had the best road record in the NBA at 31-10 and 28-13 ATS, losing three in a row on the road is really puzzling. Though the subject won’t be broached, you can’t help but think about how many NBA playoff series Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Piece have won, as none of them have made it to the NBA finals during their respective careers.
Boston went 66-16 (58-23-1 ATS) in the regular season and won all three games against the Hawks, who were 37-45 and the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. But the Hawks have beaten Boston three times in Atlanta in a week, forcing the Celtics to the brink in the best-of-seven series. "We have no pressure on us - just go down there, be loose, play basketball and have fun," said Johnson, a former Celtics draft pick who led the Hawks in scoring in the regular season and is averaging more than 20 points per game in the playoffs. "They were predicted to sweep us in this series. We've got nothing to lose. We've just got to go out there and fight."
While Johnson might believe his teammates have no pressure, they’ve lost three games in Boston by 22.3 PPG in this series and not winning this first round matchup only makes a cute story to talk about next season for the Hawks, who are 6-14 ATS in road games versus offensive teams scoring 99 or more points a game this season.
The only sub-.500 team to win a playoff series in the current, 16-team format, was the 1987 Seattle SuperSonics. They were 39-43 when they beat Dallas in a best-of-five, then swept Houston in four games in the second round before losing to the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.
Atlanta, which went 37-45 (38-44 ATS) in the regular season, would be the worst team to advance since the 1976 Pistons, and the first losing team to beat a No. 1 overall seed in a best-of-seven series.
Boston is enormous 14-point at Sportsbook.com, with total of 190 and is 8-0 ATS after failing to cover three of their last four games against the spread this season. Atlanta is just 8-20 ATS in a road game where the total is between 190 and 199.5 points.
Tempo is the key for both teams. In the first two games of the series the UNDER was the correct call and the Celtics cruised, in the last four, the OVER has produced the winning ticket and Atlanta snagged three wins in those games. Boston is 11-3 UNDER as a home favorite of 12.5 or more points this season winning by an average 16.2 PPG.
ABC will broadcast the potentially making historic contest at 1 Eastern, Hawks coach Mike Woodson saying, "Nobody gave us chance of winning a game this series," Woodson said. "I take my hat off to the guys in the Hawks locker room. They believe. They're playing like that.
"It's down to a one-game series. ... We've put ourselves in position to do something very special."
StatFox Power Line – Boston by 11
AP Sports Writer Paul Newberry in Atlanta contributed to this article.
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