ATLANTA — The Boston Celtics were supposed to be resting up by now, getting ready for the next round of the NBA playoffs.
Instead, they’re headed back to Beantown all tied up with the lowly Atlanta Hawks.
Joe Johnson scored 35 points, 20 in the fourth quarter, and Josh Smith added 28 points and seven blocked shots for Atlanta, which surprised the Celtics again 97-92 on Monday night to even the series at two games apiece.
“We took care of our home court,” Johnson said. “Now we’ve got to go up to Boston and somehow steal one.”
Game 5 is Wednesday night in Boston. No one could have seen that coming.
The Hawks had the worst record (37-45) of any playoff team, and they certainly played like it in the first two games at Boston, losing them by an average of 21 points. The Celtics, who won an NBA-leading 66 games during the regular season, came South looking to wrap it up.
Now it’s best of three.
“We’ve got to find ourselves real quick,” Boston’s Sam Cassell said. “We’ve got to find our team identity, our team chemistry, we’ve got to find all that real quick.”
The credit for this Atlanta stunner goes largely to John-son, who took control in the final quarter. After Smith’s jumper put the Hawks ahead to stay 81-79, Johnson scored nine consecutive points to keep the Celtics on the ropes.
The knockout came when Paul Pierce drove to the hoop and left it short, then tumbled over a cameraman alongside the basket. When the Boston star finally climbed back to his feet, he had a look of dis-belief — which pretty much sums up the way the Celtics are feeling about this series.
