Hawks take 2-0 lead over Celtics after record-breaking 1st quarter
ATLANTA - The Hawks held the Boston Celtics to the lowest-scoring first quarter in the playoffs since the NBA went to the shot clock, building a 21-point lead and holding on despite an ugly shooting performance of their own for an 89-72 victory Tuesday night, giving Atlanta a 2-0 lead in the opening-round series.
Al Horford and Kyle Korver led Atlanta with 17 points apiece, but this game was essentially decided in the first 12 minutes.
The Hawks started out 9-of-13 from the field, knocking down six from beyond the 3-point arc. Korver made four from long range, a big turnaround from a 1-of-10 performance in Game 1 that didn't include any threes. Atlanta led 24-3 just six-and-a-half minutes into the game.
Even after failing to score the rest of the period, the Hawks still led 24-7 heading to the second.
Game 3 is Friday night in Boston.
Boston struggling was not unexpected, given the Celtics were without two key players. Avery Bradley, the team's second-leading scorer, went down in Game 1 with a badly strained hamstring and is unlikely to play the rest of the series. Then, after the morning shootaround, the Celtics ruled out key backup Kelly Olynyk because of a lingering shoulder injury.
Even so, no one expected it to be this bad.
Boston made just 3 of 23 shots from the field in the first period, missing all six attempts beyond the 3-point arc. The Hawks made things especially tough on the undersized Celtics from close in, blocking six shots.
It was also Boston's lowest-scoring playoff quarter since the NBA was founded in 1949. The team made one playoff appearance in the league's predecessor, the Basketball Association of America (BAA), but records from that series were not available.
For good measure, the Hawks matched their franchise record for the fewest points allowed in any playoff quarter. They also surrendered seven in the fourth period of a 90-64 win over the Miami Heat in 2009.
After their opening salvo, the Hawks made just 23 of 69 shots (33 percent) the rest of the way. It didn't matter.