Three takeaways from Celtics’ Game 6 win eliminating Hawks

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The Hawks put up more of a fight than many outside Atlanta expected — and Trae Young reminded everyone of the potential of his game — but in the end the Boston Celtics pulled away in the final minutes to beat the Hawks 128-120 in Game 6. That gives the Celtics the series 4-2.

Here are three takeaways from the Celtics’ Game 6 win.

1) Marcus Smart put the brakes on another Trae Young game

Dejonte Murray returning from suspension made a nice storyline, but if the Hawks were going to force a Game 7 it would be because Trae Young dominated again — and for a half he did. Young had 25 points with four 3-pointers in the first half and it was a one-point game at the break.

ICE TRAE 🥶

25 in the 1st half | BOS leads series 3-2 | TNT pic.twitter.com/EH8k3INDG8

— NBA (@NBA) April 28, 2023

Then Marcus Smart happened.

“Marcus was being way more aggressive and wasn’t leaving me as much…” Young said. “In the 2nd half, he was just more connected to me.”

Young had five points on 1-of-13 shooting after halftime, plus he had some ugly moments like a rough time inbounding out of the corner late in the game. It took more than just Smart to slow Young, but this was the kind of team defensive effort that we didn’t see enough of from Boston in the first round —and they had better bring a lot more of those against Philadelphia (more on that in No. 3 below).

2) Boston got a balanced performance, the Hawks got something to build on

Boston is the betting favorite in the East — thanks to the Heat sending the Bucks fishing — and a key reason is depth. There are no obvious, easy-to-exploit holes in their lineup, plus they can get scoring from a variety of places.

That was evident in Game 6: Jaylen Brown scored 32, Jayson Tatum added 30, Smart scored 22 plus played lock-down defense in the second half, Malcolm Brogdon scored 17, and Al Horford had a critical 10 points. There was balance.

Highlights: Celtics beat the Hawks 128-120 in ATL and advance in the NBA Playoffs #BleedGreen pic.twitter.com/gEBLThOCVd

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) April 28, 2023

Boston will need more of that going forward,…

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Source link : https://nba.nbcsports.com/2023/04/28/three-takeaways-from-celtics-game-6-win-eliminating-hawks/?ocid=Yahoo&partner=ya5nbcs?src=rss

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2023-04-28 10:26:47

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