Boston Celtics

Celtics Stunned In Game 4

A Column by WBZ's Dan Roche

ATLANTA (WBZ) ― I'll be the first one to admit it. I came to Atlanta expecting to witness a Celtics sweep of the Hawks.

After all this was a team that won just 37 games during the regular season. 37-45 was their record. They were the 8th and final seed in the dismal Eastern Conference. They were young and untested. They had a non-caring fan base.

Meanwhile, the mighty Celtics had rolled through the regular season and were heavily favored to advance to at least the East Finals. The Hawks? A mere tune-up.

And, boy did it look that way through the first two games as Boston rolled to victories by an average of 21 points per game. That after beating the Hawks in all three regular season meetings.

Ah, but for the beauty of sports.....

The young Hawks got some life down here. Started making some shots. Got their fans into the game. Made Phillips Arena rock. Woke up the city.

They stole Game Three. Got hot down the stretch while the Celts team defense struggled.

Ok, so one game..no biggie, right?

Wrong. Enter Joe Johnson. One time Celtic. All-Star. He simply took over a game. Atlanta trailed by 10 points entering the 4th quarter. Joe Johnson shrugged it off and went out and put up 20 points by himself. He outscored Boston 20-17 in the 4th quarter. And some of the shots he made were amazing.

However, this isn't supposed to happen to a team like the Celtics, is it? It has.

Game Five is Wednesday night at the Garden. Will the Celts win? Probably, but that's what we thought about Games 3 and 4. Can the Hawks win? Sure.

Time for the Celtics to did deep. get down to business. Get angry. There's certainly no panic and the Celts have been extremely classy in complimenting the young Hawks and their fans.

But now they've been punched in the mouth twice. Time to get angry and punch back.

Or else........

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