Boston 104, Atlanta 92

So much for the Hawks.

[recap] [box score]

After a young Atlanta took the eventual world champs to seven games in the first round of last year's playoffs, the Hawks were lauded as up-and-comers in the East. And while they still have a pretty good hold on the fourth seed and thus a first-round playoff series at home, they hardly seem like a team that can challenge any of the Eastern conference's best three teams when the playoffs begin in a couple weeks.

Friday night's win over the brooding Hawks marked a season sweep for the Celtics, and came (again) without the services of Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe. The final margin was only 12 points, but it got to 20 in the fourth quarter, and it was the kind of game where the outcome never seemed in doubt in the second half.

Major credit goes to our undermanned frontcourt. Our three frontcourt players had great games: 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 blocks for Kendrick Perkins; 19 points for Glen Davis; 9 points and 6 boards off the bench for Mikki Moore. These guys played Al Horford and Josh Smith to a stalemate, and Perk anchored a defense that held Atlanta to 35.6 percent shooting. Defensively, let's also give some credit to Ray Allen, who did a great job of checking Joe Johnson. Johnson, you may recall, gave the Celtics all sorts of problems in last year's postseason.

Four days off now until our next game on Wednesday against New Jersey. The peculiarities of the NBA schedule give us a very light slate the rest of the way. So while the other teams are beating each other up, we can rest a little bit and try to get everyone healthy.

Speaking of "beating each other up," third-place Orlando clobbered first-place Cleveland on national TV last night, the kind of loss that made the Cavs, now losers of two straight after a franchise-best 13 consectuive wins, seem mortal in a way they hadn't before. The Cavs still have a vise grip on the Eastern Conference's top seed, so Boston would actually like to see Orlando losing more down the stretch than Cleveland.

Speaking of the playoffs, I've been thinking for a while now that with Detroit's struggles this season, the Celtics might have to go through Detroit, Orlando, and Cleveland to reach the Finals, quite a gauntlet. This group of Pistons have a championship ring, have gone to six consecutive Eastern Conference finals, and now have Allen Iverson, the kind of player you never want to go against in a playoff series.

Or, I should say, had Allen Iverson. The Pistons announced yesterday that Iverson would miss the rest of the season with his back injury, though there's plenty of speculation that The Answer's discontent at coming off of the bench played a role in this decision. Whatever the reason, Detroit now induces less fear, and Boston may not even have to worry about them; Saturday's loss to Philadelphia (in which the Sixers clinched a playoff spot) put the Pistons in eighth place in the East, half a game back of Chicago and two ahead of Charlotte.