Garnett Dominant as Celtics Win over Hawks

By Matt Gibson
13:42, November 10th 2007

The highly improved Boston Celtics continue their march to reach their declared objective of winning a NBA title. Kevin Garnett was once again the decisive figure on the field and scored 27 points, hauled in 19 rebounds and recorded six assists as the Celtics won 106-83 over the Atlanta Hawks.

The Celtics are having a great season start and are at their fourth consecutive win, a feat they haven’t achieved over the last 20 years. In the 1987-88 season they managed to win the first six games of the regular season and then went on to the Eastern Conference finals.

Paul Pierce was also on target and finished the game with 23 points. Eddie House scored 19 points off the bench and veteran guard Ray Allen chipped in with 14.

"Just working hard, man. Just trying to mesh. Trying to be more connected on defense. Like we've been saying, the offense is the obvious, but ya'll don't know how hard we work on our defense,” said Garnett.

For the Hawks, Joe Johnson and Al Horford scored 16 points each. Atlanta’s losing streak on the road reached 16 games dating back to last season. Their last win on the road came on February 14 in a 96-93 victory over the L.A. Clippers at Staples Center.

The only other player to finish the game in double figures for the Hawks was Marvin Williams, who scored 14 points.

The Hawks were 31-30 ahead when Ray Allen’s jump shot pushed the Celtics in front and from then on the lead was theirs for good. An 11-2 run followed which pushed the Celtics lead to 41-33 with 4:49 left in the second quarter.

The Hawks fought back and managed to cut it to 47-39 but the Celtics finished the half with an 8-2 with Paul Pierce providing the scoring. The story kept on repeating itself, with the Hawks closing in only to see the Celtics rebuild their commanding lead.

The sharp shooting display from their last game against the Denver Nuggets, when they shot 64.5 percent, wasn’t an isolated case. The Celtics were very accurate against the Hawks as well and they made 61.2 percent of their shots while holding the Hawks to 42.9.