Hawks at Celtics
The Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics have exchanged easy wins in their first two meetings this season and will vie for the upper hand in their third encounter Friday night in Boston. The Celtics rolled to a 106-93 win versus Atlanta on Nov. 13 to begin a 10-5 surge, but the Hawks exacted revenge with a 121-97 rout at home less than two weeks later.
That result still stands as Boston's largest margin of defeat and Atlanta's largest margin of victory on the season. The Celtics have lost two straight and three of their last four with Wednesday's 119-116 defeat at Detroit, wasting a career high-tying 38 points by Isaiah Thomas. The Hawks snapped a three-game slide with a 127-106 rout of Philadelphia while shooting a season-high 61.5 percent. Paul Millsap - who had 25 points and nine rebounds in the big win over Boston last month - led the way with 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSN Southeast (Atlanta), CSN New England (Boston)
ABOUT THE HAWKS (15-12): The hot-shooting night was a necessary one for an Atlanta team that went cold in its three-game slide, albeit against three quality opponents in Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Miami. Of note was the better performance by point guard Jeff Teague - who was 2-of-17 in his previous two games before going 6-of-9 against Philadelphia - and backcourt mate Kyle Korver. The sharpshooter, who was 4-for-20 overall and 2-of-12 from 3-point range in those two defeats, hit a pair of 3-pointers in four attempts versus the 76ers while handing out a season-high seven assists.
ABOUT THE CELTICS (14-12): Wednesday's defeat ended Boston's improbable run of winning 10 straight road games at the end of back-to-backs, including three this season. A bright spot was the play of little-used big man Tyler Zeller, who scored a season-high 12 points in only 10 minutes after a four-game stretch in which he saw only three minutes of action. Boston will be looking for a bounce-back game from guard Avery Bradley, who scored 25 points in the previous meeting with Atlanta but was limited to five on 2-of-8 shooting at Detroit.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Since tying a career high with 28 points last Friday against Golden State, Boston C Kelly Olynyk is averaging 4.3 points on 27.3 percent shooting over a three-game slump.
2. Korver has drilled 6-of-8 long-range attempts against the Celtics this season.
3. After playing three times in just over a month, the teams complete their four-game season series in Atlanta on April 9.