Evan Turner hits game-winning runner as Celtics upset Hawks
The first time the Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics squared off this season, the Hawks came back from a 23-point deficit to beat Boston at Philips Arena behind stellar second halves from Kyle Korver, Al Horford and Dennis Schröder. After falling behind by 18 points late in the second quarter at T.D. Garden on Wednesday, the Celtics served a dish of ice-cold revenge to the East-leading Hawks, with Evan Turner putting the cherry on top in the final second:
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After All-Star point guard Jeff Teague missed a short runner that would have extended Atlanta’s lead to three with 14 seconds left, the Celtics brought the ball into the frontcourt, and with the Hawks defense pressuring Boston’s ball-handlers, head coach Brad Stevens elected to call a timeout to settle things down and make sure his team got a good look at a winner. He put the ball in the hands of Turner, who came through in a similar situation a couple of weeks back against the Portland Trail Blazers, and trusted the former No. 2 overall draft pick to make a play.
Turner took an inbounds pass from Tayshaun Prince and isolated up top against Hawks perimeter-defending ace DeMarre Carroll. On the right side of the floor, Celtics guard Avery Bradley curled toward the ball off an elbow screen from big man Jared Sullinger, but Turner — despite having had some difficulties with his dribble on the previous possession (perhaps influencing Celtics play-by-play man Mike Gorman’s later slip into calling him “Evan Turnover”) — elected to take it himself, dribbling into the lane and lofting up a righty runner over Carroll’s outstretched hand that splashed through with two-tenths of a second remaining, capping a 14-4 run over the final 4:12 of the fourth quarter. Atlanta’s attempt at an inbounds tip-in came up empty, and the Celtics came away with an 89-88 upset of the best team in the East.
Turner played a big role in the win, scoring 12 points (on 4-for-11 shooting) to go with nine assists, seven rebounds, a steal and just two turnovers in 31 minutes of work, with six points and four dimes coming in a fourth quarter that saw Boston outscore Atlanta 28-16 to come away with the victory. After the game, Turner credited Stevens’ play call in Boston’s final timeout for giving him both options and room to operate.
“[Stevens] said I had the option of passing to Avery off the curl or whatnot, but I felt confident in the drive,” Turner told Comcast SportsNet New England’s Abby Chin. “I think before, I lost [the ball] twice trying to get a game-winning shot. I felt confident and I believed it was going to go in. It was great spacing, a lot of good spacing, and our team did a great job of staying in the game and battling back. It’s just a great win.”
It wasn’t the prettiest win, per se:
Celtics come from 18 down to win for the first time in two years… …despite shooting 32.3%, their worst shooting night of the year.
— Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) February 12, 2015
… but it’s still a W, powered by Turner, Sullinger (17 points and 15 rebounds in 28 1/2 minutes) and rookie Marcus Smart (seven of his 11 points in the final frame) — and it brings the Celtics, largely considered to be in the fire-sale business after trading away longtime star Rajon Rondo, within 1 1/2 games of the eighth and final playoff spot in the East.
Marcus Thornton on playoffs (!): “I believe we can make it and make some noise when we get there, so it’s on us to make it happen.”
— Ben Rohrbach (@brohrbach) February 12, 2015
While we’ll hold off on printing up playoff tickets just yet, the victory does send Boston into the All-Star break on a high note, as winners of four of their last five. Beyond that, as Turner noted, it helped wash away the the long-lingering bad taste from the two teams’ first meeting this season.
“It’s really big,” Turner said. “It’s a big win, especially going into the All-Star break. We really needed it. At the same time, we owed them one, man. We were up by 20 back in Atlanta versus them, so we’re glad to get this win and come back.”
Horford led the way with 22 points on 11-for-15 shooting, 12 rebounds, three assists and a block in 36 minutes for the Hawks, who enter the break with the best record in the Eastern Conference, but also hit the pause button having lost two of their last three games and three of their last six. The rest of the Hawks’ starters struggled mightily, with Horford’s fellow All-Stars Teague, Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver combining for just 39 points on 12-for-43 shooting.
Thanks to second-unit contributions from Schröder (eight points, two rebounds, two assists), swingman Kent Bazemore (nine points, four rebounds, two assists and a block) and Mike Scott (nine points, three rebounds), the Hawks were still in position to salt away a victory with just a couple more fourth-quarter makes or stops. They couldn’t, though, leaving the door open for Turner to create his own shot and send Atlanta into the break a bit more bummed out than they’d have liked.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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