Celtics ride Thomas' 42-point night to Game 3 win over Hawks

BOSTON - Isaiah Thomas scored a career-high 42 points, and the Boston Celtics held on to beat the Atlanta Hawks 111-103 on Friday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference first-round series.

Evan Turner, inserted into the starting lineup, had 17 points and seven assists. Amir Johnson added 15 points and seven rebounds as the Celtics closed to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.

Playing by far their best first half of the series, Boston led by as many as 20 points before seeing that mostly erased by a 12-0 run by the Hawks in the third quarter.

The Celtics then survived a frenetic fourth quarter that featured three ties and a pair of lead changes, finally getting separation with five straight points for a 104-98 lead.

Jeff Teague had 23 points for Atlanta. Kent Bazemore and Dennis Schroder each finished with 20.

Game 4 is Sunday in Boston.

In an effort to find some early energy following lethargic opening quarters in both Game 1 and 2, Celtics coach Brad Stevens tweaked his lineup Friday.

He started Turner in place of Marcus Smart, and Jonas Jerebko got the nod over Jared Sullinger.

Related: Marcus Smart executes epic flying dropkick-like flop

It meant the Celtics were a much smaller team, but it also translated into a group that was a lot quicker and active in transition.

That showed early with the first points of the game coming via Jerebko on a tip-dunk off Thomas' missed layup. Boston used the jolt to build its double-digit first-half lead.

The Hawks whittled away at it with a balanced attack, but still shot just 12 percent from the 3-point line in the opening 24 minutes.

Along with the quickened offensive pace, tempers were tweaked times.

Most notably, Thomas and Schroder were issued double technical fouls following a brief face-to-face moment. Thomas had to be restrained by Sullinger.

Related: Thomas takes swipe at Schroder, pushing and technicals ensue

Sullinger was called for a flagrant foul on Schroder later in the period. That was almost immediately followed by a flagrant foul on the other end by Paul Millsap on Sullinger.

Then, early in the fourth quarter, Schroder was issued a flagrant for a foul on Thomas.

- with files from theScore