Hawks at Celtics
The Boston Celtics returned home with an impressive performance on Thursday and are trying to take advantage of their final homestand of the season and move up the standings in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics will try to improve to 2-0 on the three-game homestand when they host the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.
Boston enters play on Friday in fifth place in the East - two games behind the third-place Indiana Pacers with the Philadelphia 76ers in between - and will not play consecutive home games the rest of the way after hosting the Denver Nuggets on Monday. The Celtics, who are 25-10 at home, are looking to secure homecourt advantage in a potential first-round playoff series and recovered from a 17-point deficit to top the Sacramento Kings 126-120 on Thursday and earn their fifth win in the last seven games. The Hawks come in hot after averaging 130 points in wins over New Orleans and Memphis to cap a four-game homestand. Atlanta is well out of the playoff race but is coming together as it rebuilds and will have an impact on the races in both conferences with its next five games against Boston, Orlando, Houston, Utah and Philadelphia.
TV: 12:30 p.m. ET, FS Southeast (Atlanta), NBCS Boston
ABOUT THE HAWKS (24-45): Atlanta's offensive onslaught over the past two games was led by power forward John Collins, who totaled 50 points on 20-of-32 shooting while running his double-double streak to four straight. Collins was backed up on the outside by a pair of rookies, with shooting guard Kevin Huerter stepping up Sunday against New Orleans and point guard Trae Young taking his turn on Wednesday against the Grizzlies. Young, who suffered through a 2-of-14 shooting night against the Pelicans, poured in 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting against Memphis while adding eight assists and no turnovers.
ABOUT THE CELTICS (42-27): All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving led the way with 31 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds on Thursday and was just happy to get the first one back from the road trip over. "The hardest game is the first game coming back from a road trip," Irving told reporters. "It's always going to be a dogfight no matter who you're playing against, but obviously when you have a team fighting for playoff position it's going to be that type of intensity and you've got to be ready for it. So, they were up 17, but we used our experience and a lot of the things we're great at, just attitude, toughness, things we can control, effort, and got back in the game." Power forward Marcus Morris added a double-double with 21 points and 13 rebounds in the victory.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Hawks SG Kent Bazemore went 0-of-6 from the floor and 0-of-5 from 3-point range on Wednesday.
2. Celtics SG Jaylen Brown is averaging 22 points on 18-of-29 over the last two games.
3. The Celtics took each of the first three meetings this season by an average of 15.7 points.