Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown showed up and showed out as they each scored 31 points for the Boston Celtics en route to 129-121 victory against the Atlanta Hawks in Game Four of their first round playoff series.
Brown is a native of East Atlanta and he said it was bittersweet for him as he reflected on the victory.
“It’s bittersweet, man, growing up here,” the 26-year-old Brown said. “My first game was a Hawks game. I was sitting in the nosebleeds. My aunt, who was in attendance tonight, bought me tickets to my first game for my seventh birthday.”
Late Sunday night, the NBA announced an investigation into Hawks guard Dejounte Murray’s actions as he appeared to make contact with referee Gedimidas Petraitis as he walked off the court after the loss. According to this video, Murray turned back and yelled at an individual before leaving the court.
Trae Young scored 35 points and had a playoff-high 15 assists but it was not enough as the Hawks were unable to receive the same level of contributions from their bench.
Friday night, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Saddiq Bey, and Jalen Johnson were held to single-digit scoring outputs after the trio reached double figures in Game Three. With the loss, the Hawks are now on the brink of elimination.
“They came out with a sense of urgency, and it showed,” Hawks point guard Trae Young said. “They’re a really good team. They’re here for a reason.”
“We’ve got to play well for 48 minutes against this team,” said Hawks Head Coach Quinn Snyder. “And you know that that’s harder on the road. But that’s a challenge and it’s one we have to embrace because that that’s what it’s going to take and we know how good they are. And we know the level that you know that we can play at. We have to find that level.”
The winner of this series will face the Philadelphia 76ers after they swept the Brooklyn Nets in their first round matchup.