Celtics, 104-81 (final)
One down. Fifteen to go.
The Celtics took a 1-0 lead in their first-round playoff series with Atlanta tonight, beating the Hawks 104-81 in front of a fired-up home crowd at the TD Banknorth Garden. The Celtics need fifteen more wins (or wins in four playoff series) to earn a 17th championship for the franchise.
With the Garden crowd finally releasing some pent-up playoff enthusiasm, the Hawks played like a young team and dug themselves a hole in the first quarter. The Celtics led by eight after the first and nine at halftime. An 11-4 run to open the third essentially put the game away.
The Celtics didn’t play their best game, but they didn’t need it at home tonight against the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference. Ray Allen led five Celtics in double-figures with 18 points. Rajon Rondo had a stellar playoff debut for the Celtics, finishing with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists.
Kevin Garnett finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds and left the game to chants of, “M-V-P, M-V-P”.
Atlanta was led by rookie Al Horford’s 20 points, but the Hawks lacked a true leader on the floor during the game. No Atlanta player seemed comfortable carrying the team on his back.
The teams will have to wait until Wednesday to play Game 2 of the series here at the TD Banknorth Garden. Games 3 and 4 will be in Atlanta.
We’ll have plenty of postgame reaction from the locker rooms in a bit.
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