Atlanta @ Boston

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After a heart breaking defeat to the Wolves, the Celtics try to get back on the right foot against Antoine Walker's old team. It should be an interesting game as Walker will be squaring off against yet another former team. This game will also mark the Boston return of Tom Gugliotta and Michael Stewart.

The Celtics have won seven of the last nine games at the Nameless Center. They will try to capitalize on the remaining three games that are left in their homestand.

The Hawks are amidst a three game road trip, something that they are not confortable with being the worst road team in the NBA. Atlanta is coming off a loss to the Bucks Tuesday to extend their losing streak to a whopping twelve games.


[imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/celtics/allen_140_041026.jpg[/imgl]
Key Injuries



Starter Tony Allen is currently listed as questionable for this game. It will be interesting to see if he will return tonight. My guess would be that Doc Rivers will sit him at least one more game, because he probably won't be needed against the league's worst team. Much has been said regarding the need for Tony to return as a starter. I personally think that the bench is in need of a better scoring option and will be much more effective with Ricky as the sixth man again.





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[imgl]http://www.nba.com/media/celtics/walker_140_050225.jpg[/imgl]
Key Matchup
Antoine Walker vs. Al Harrington

A battle of ex-teammates, this one should be interesting to watch. Both will look to prove something. Walker has put a lot of life into the Celtics, and will most likely get better with time in the system. Harrington has his own team for the first time in his career, even if it is the Hawks. Besides all that, this is the only logical key matchup because it's the only position that is anywhere close talentwide.







Prediction

I don't think this will be a close game. It will remain close through the first quarter, but Boston will pull away in the second quarter and won't look back.

Boston 101
Atlanta 85</div>

 

What the hell are those shoes that Harrington is wearing? Clown shoes? LOL

I hope for a blowout, but if we can't have that, I still expect a win. All winning streaks need a start and tonights a good time to start one.


BTW: nice game thread.

 

I'll be interested to see what type of shape the Hawks are in, because I can't imagine that getting into Boston was an easy task last night with the storm...

 

Boston will smash them. Al Harrington can't run a team all by himself. Josh Smith is way too young to step up. This Atlanta Hawk team is a joke.

 

Somebody forgot to set the alarm clock. After one quarter, the C's are down by 10. They are playing terrible on both sides of the ball. It looks like this could be a trap game to me, unless the C's decide to take this game seriously.

 

We won, but if I can be crass for a moment, we pretty much sucked for the first 43 minutes tonight.

If we play like we did tonight against Detriot and Washington, we'll get blown out by halftime.

<font color="DarkRed"><font size="7">I'm not happy right now.</font></font>

 

Antoine won it for us with that steal. But Pierce stepped up in the 4th quarter like old times.

 

here's my official rant:
C's stink tonight, but win

 

Sometimes I check the box score, and there will be one thing that totally amazes me, even though I watched the game. I swear that I can't remember a single second of Marcus Banks playing in this game. On the box score, it says seven minutes.

Also, the Celtics shot 46%. Man, I would've guessed about 16% or something.

THIS BOX SCORE IS MESSING WITH MY MIND

 

^^ Try this one: The Celtics had less turnovers than the Hawks did! (20-14)

How did that one happen?

 

Maybe I'm getting cocky, but I honestly never felt that the Celtics were going to lose this game. But I just got the same vibe I had against the Knicks and Memphis at home this season: just hanging around, staying around 6-8 down, not letting the other team pull away and turn it on the last couple of minutes. I spent the first 3 quarters just expecting a run.
If we were playing anyone but the Hawks tonight, we would have been rolled. This had every feel of a team that was looking ahead to the game against the Pistons on Friday. I just hope that the team doesn't get in the habit of thinking they can turn on the jets the last couple of minutes, cause against just about any other team, thats not going to work...