Rondo's 19 assists not enough as Celtics cough up 23-point lead to Hawks

For the eighth time in his career, Rajon Rondo tallied 19 assists in a single game. For just the second time, all that help he provided his teammates wasn't quite enough.

Rondo's outing helped the Boston Celtics pull out to a 23-point lead over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday. Calling Boston's second-half defense shaky would be a compliment, though, and the Hawks roared back with 59 points after the break to take the 109-105 victory.

While the Celtics have competed more often than not, the inconsistent effort throughout games has plagued them in what's now a five-game losing streak. Even Rondo, who facilitated as well as anyone could hope and grabbed 12 boards to boot, managed just two points on 1-of-8 shooting and coughed up seven turnovers.

The Hawks deserve credit, too, of course, and head coach Mike Budenholzer's creative offense is hard to hold down for long. With a third consecutive win, Atlanta is now an impressive 10-6 on the year, boasting a borderline top-five offensive attack.

It was Kyle Korver catching fire Tuesday, as he's wont to do, hitting 6-of-7 from long range for a team-high 24 points. Of those, 13 came in the second half, and Korver's now shooting an unbelievable 57.8 percent on triples for the season. That's really, really unfair.

While his 13.6 points a night are modest, the Hawks have been 16.9 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor than without, which is one of the most stark differences in the league for a non-star.