Boston Celtics Go For a Second Straight Win in their NBA Playoff Series Against the Atlanta Hawks

The Boston Celtics made it look easy in their Game 1 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. Now they’ll try for a repeat performance when the two teams meet in Game 2 of their best-of-seven opening round series.

Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET at TD Garden. The Celtics are favored by -10 points at BetOnline and are a whopping -510 on the moneyline. The total is 230. 

Boston Celtics (57-25, 1-0, #2 seed)

It was all Celtics in Game 1. They led the Hawks by as many as 32 points en route to a 112-99 Game 1 victory.

Jaylen Brown, playing in his first game since suffering a cut on a finger that required five stitches, turned in a gutsy performance. He split the cut open Saturday but still scored a game high 29 points with 12 rebounds.

Jaylen Brown came out ready to play for Celtics playoff opener 😤

✅ 29 PTS
✅ 12-23 FG
✅ 12 REB
✅ 3 AST

He was locked in from the beginning 🔒

Full highlights ▶️ https://t.co/WF0BII0kKJ pic.twitter.com/Wy7opjZUd8

— Tomek Kordylewski (@Timi_093) April 16, 2023

Jayson Tatum scored 25 points

Atlanta Hawks (41-41, 0-1, #7 seed)

Almost to a man the Hawks said they need to be more aggressive in Game 2.  They trailed by 30 points at the break, 74-44 but rallied to make the final score a little more respectable.

Trae Young had a rough series opener. He was held to 5 of 18 shooting and had a team high five turnovers and finished with 16 points. Young could be distracted by the trade rumors surrounding him or it could be the Celtics just have his number:

The Hawks’ front office has the green light from ownership to consider trade opportunities involving Trae Young, per @KevinOConnorNBA pic.twitter.com/ryLoN9Yn8W

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) April 10, 2023

As a team, the Hawks were 5 of 29 from downtown (17.2  percent) and shot 38.8 percent overall from the floor.

Atlanta big man John Collins also struggled. He had just 12 points in Game on 5 of 7 shooting but it continued a pattern of sub-par performances against the C’s.  In two regular season games, he averaged just 11.5 points and shot 44.0 percent from the field against Boston. This from a player who is just a few months removed from being a 20/10 NBA performer.

Celtics are the team to beat for the title

Take the Celtics wire-to-wire victory over the Hawks. Add a lower back contusion suffered by Milwaukee’s  Giannis Antetokounmpo and you have the ingredients for Boston to be the new favorites to win the NBA championship. Several sites, including BetOnline now have the Celts on top of the board.

Bucks’ superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo (lower back contusion) will not return to Game 1 of Bucks-Heat, per @ShamsCharania.

Giannis sustained the injury on this collision with Kevin Love in the 1st quarter 🤕pic.twitter.com/ep8RFTvVfD

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 16, 2023

There’s optimism around Antetokounmpo playing in Game 2. Still the Bucks lost the opener and home court advantage to Miami.