The Celtics have now played two hard-fought games against the red-hot Hawks in the last four days, pulling out a tight win at home on Friday night, then dropping an ugly road tilt in Atlanta on Monday night. The Cs gave the Hawks different looks in each game, with Jaylen Brown missing in Boston and Jayson Tatum and Neemias Queta missing on Monday.
But there was one notably consistent trend that stuck out in both games, no matter who was on the floor: the Hawks were able to turn the Celtics over with regularity.
Ball security has been a key tenet for the Celtics under Joe Mazzulla, and this season they lead the NBA, coughing it up a league low, 12.3 times per game. But in the two Hawks games, they surrendered 16 and 15 turnovers, leading to a combined 34 points.
That’s not Celtics basketball at all, and it made the team look extremely vulnerable and beatable in a way we’re not used to seeing. Atlanta has a lot of big, strong, physical defenders, and they got into the Cs’ ballhandlers' bodies, making life difficult for them, getting their hands in passing lanes, and daring the refs to call fouls.
Celtics can’t afford to get sloppy with turnovers in playoffs
Teams are going to try to copy this model. It’s how the Heat used to attack this team in the playoffs for years, and we’ve seen others have success this way in the past. The Celtics’ guards, and the Jays especially, have gotten much better at handling this kind of pressure, but their warts can still get exposed at times.
They have to keep their focus and remain strong with the ball, regardless of the pressure. Opponents are going to try it, and if they sense any sign of weakness on the Boston end, they are only going to ramp it up even more.
Luckily, this is nothing the Celtics haven’t seen, and they should be up to the challenge, but it still has to be a major point of emphasis.
Hawks have personnel to bother Celtics
The other good news is that there aren’t many teams equipped with the personnel to actually give the Celtics these kinds of problems. It works for Atlanta because they have one of the best wing defenders in the league in Dyson Daniels, an elite defensive guard in Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and a big man who defends almost like a wing in Onyeka Okongwu.
They’ve got other lengthy athletic guys like Jalen Johnson, Jonathan Kuminga, and Zaccharie Risacher, who are far from elite defenders, but playing off their defensive teammates, they can make plays and get out in transition.
It’s a deadly combination, and it’s a big part of the reason that the Hawks have been as hot as any team in the NBA since the All-Star break. The Eastern Conference playoff picture is way too volatile to be jockeying for position, but of the teams jumbled together from 5th to 10th, this Hawks team may be one the Celtics would rather avoid.