Last night, the Boston Celtics showed what their made of, cruising for a clear win aganist the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks came to Boston pumped after winning the last two games in the series and could have finnished it at home in game six, if they had won last night.
The game ended 110 – 85 and the Celtics now lead the series 3 – 2.
Paul Pierce had a play-off high of 22 points and Ray Allen added 19, with 3 three pointers in the third quarter. Kevin Garnett scored 20 points, Sam Cassell had 9 and Leon Powe had 7 points and 5 rebounds.
The strategy for game 5 involved a tougher defence on Joe Johnson, who scored 35 points in game 4. Last night he had 21 and Horford had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks.
Boston’s head coach, Doc Rivers, was very pleased with his players and was quoted by ESPN saying: "Obviously, a better game. The execution was as crisp and sound as we've had in a month and the defense was terrific."
Game six is set for Friday, 8 p.m. at the Philips Arena as the two teams continue their best of seven fight.If Atlanta wins game six, the ‘final’ is announced in Boston on Sunday. Boston has earned this advantage with their regular season record of 66 wins and only 16 losses.
The Celtics-Hawks series came as a big surprise because most NBA fans thought that Atlanta’s players were far to young and inexperienced to offer a worthy competition.