8 takeaways as Jayson Tatum, maskless Jaylen Brown help Celtics take control vs. Hawks in Game 4 win
The Celtics are on the verge of putting away their first-round series.
The Celtics took care of business on Sunday, claiming a 129-121 victory over the Hawks in Game 4 against the Hawks.
Here are the takeaways as the Celtics take a 3-1 series lead back to Boston.
1. Game 3 might look like a bit of a missed opportunity in light of Sunday’s win — which could have been a close-out game — but the Celtics couldn’t do anything about Friday’s result two days later.
Instead, they did the next best thing: They bore down and took care of a Hawks team that knew they could make the Celtics sweat with a second consecutive win. Trae Young put up a huge stat line with 35 points and 15 assists, and while he padded his scoring stats late, he carved up the Celtics’ drop pick-and-roll coverage with his passing. De’Andre Hunter shot 11-for-14 through three quarters and poured in 27 points. Dejounte Murray finished with 23 points, nine rebounds, and six assists.
But the Celtics have a lot more weapons than the Hawks — six players scored in double figures. Perhaps most notably, the Celtics beat the Hawks on the margins — presumably to Joe Mazzulla’s delight, they generated 40 triples to Atlanta’s 37, and they out-rebounded the Hawks 49-42. The Hawks only grabbed two more offensive rebounds than the Celtics, which is not a margin that will meaningfully sting in this series.
The Celtics did what they needed to do on Sunday — they put Friday’s loss in the rearview mirror and pushed the Hawks to the brink. Now they have to send the Hawks tumbling backward (to Cancun) in two days.
2. After shooting poorly in Game 3, Jaylen Brown checked out for his first break without a field-goal attempt. When he checked back in, he made just one of his first seven shots.
Finally, a frustrated Brown removed the mask he has worn since returning from a facial fracture. Brown shot well at times with the mask, but on Sunday, taking it off seemed to make a big difference — the Celtics’ star made five of his next six shots and finished with a big stat line: 31 points on 12-for-22 shooting to go with four rebounds and three assists.
“I don’t know, maybe it was all in my head,” Brown said. “I just needed something different. When I took it off, it just gave me the edge I needed.”
Brown was particularly good in the fourth quarter, tallying 12 points and two of his assists — a pair of beautiful passes to Robert Williams for easy baskets. Brown was part of a Celtics offensive attack that kept the Hawks at arm’s length and outscored them 37-34 in a fourth-quarter shootout.
When a reporter asked Mazzulla what he saw when Brown removed it, Mazzulla wisecracked that he “saw his face.”
“And then after that, I saw his poise,” Mazzulla added. “He did a great job making plays at the rim, operating in space, playing off two feet, making the right play, to me he showed just tremendous poise, especially on the offensive end.”
The Celtics had several jokes about Brown’s maskless performance.
“After the timeout, we were looking for Jaylen and couldn’t find him because he didn’t have his mask on,” Smart said chuckling. “I was like, ‘Where’s he at?'”
3. Tatum, meanwhile, scored 31 points as well including 16 in the fourth quarter. His biggest basket was a dagger triple with the shot clock winding down and his heel in the center-court circle, which pushed the lead to 12 with two minutes remaining.
Tatum also blocked three shots.
“I was on my D-White [expletive] tonight,” Tatum said.
4. Don’t be surprised if Dejounte Murray is suspended for Game 5 of the series — as he walked off the floor following the final buzzer, he bumped NBA referee Gediminas Petraitis with very clear intent, staring at the official as he did it.
The NBA is careful to protect its referees, and making any kind of intentional contact with them as a player is an easy way to get tossed. We’d guess here — with a pretty fair amount of confidence — that Murray cost himself a chance to be part of the Hawks’ effort to bring the series back to Atlanta.
Tatum also bumped Petraitis earlier in the game after he took a hard foul from Trae Young, and while the NBA might want to take a look, Tatum’s collision appeared somewhat more incidental than Murray’s.
“I got up real quick, I just wanted to scare [Young] a little bit,” Tatum said (presumably joking — his comment drew laughs from reporters). “But I know Trae real well, no harm. Playoff foul. Just wanted to get up quick and move on, that’s all it was.”
5. After a quiet Game 3, Robert Williams was significantly more active and impactful in Game 4 — piling up a jam-packed stat line with 13 points, 15 rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocks. He played just under 29 minutes as well, which is a very encouraging number for the Celtics given how impactful he has been since his return from a hamstring injury in March.
“Yeah, I’m feeling good, man,” Williams said when a reporter asked if this is the closest he feels to his peak last year. “Hopefully no injuries for me or anybody else playing throughout the playoffs. But I’m feeling good right now.”
6. Al Horford scored zero points, attempted just two shots … and finished with the Celtics’ highest plus/minus at +17. He grabbed 11 rebounds, dished out five assists, and came up with two steals.
7. Former Celtics guard Kemba Walker was in attendance on Sunday, sitting behind his old team’s bench.
Walker — who played in nine games for the Mavericks this season — remains a popular figure within the Celtics’ organization since they dealt him in the 2022 offseason to bring Al Horford back into the mix. Walker played in just 43 games in his final season with the Celtics and has played in 46 total over the last two.
8. Game 5 will take place on Tuesday back in Boston. If they win, their series against the 76ers will start on Saturday. If they need six or seven games to beat the Hawks, it starts Monday.
In light of Joel Embiid’s sprained knee, which might not be fully healed by Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semis, the Celtics would do well to bring their same business-like attitude back home and close things out quickly.
“There were a few times last year where we kind of relaxed,” Tatum said. ” … Trying not to make it tougher on ourselves, not relaxing. Damn near go in there with the mindset that we’re down 3-1 and we have to win than thinking it’s over and they are going to give up. Because they are not, they are a great, really well-coached team, they got great players, and they got a lot of pride.
“Go in there with the mindset that we have to win to survive, and just being aware of learning from our mistakes last year that kind of made the road a little tougher for us.”
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