How we see it goin' down: Celtics - Hawks

Tip: 7:30 PM Court: Philiips Arena Watch it: CSN Hear it: WEEI

Referees: Bill Spooner, Kane Fitzgerald and Derek Richardson

The Matchup


Record: 23-21 (2nd Atlantic, 7th East)	Record: 26-19 (3rd Southeast, 6th East)
On the road: 7-13	At Home: 13-6
Streak: Lost 2	Streak: Won 2
Leaders	Leaders
Buckets: Pierce (18.4 ppg)	Buckets: Joe Johnson (18.6 ppg)
Boards: Garnett (8.2 rpg)	Boards: Josh Smith (9.5 rpg)
Dimes: Rondo (10.3 apg)	Dimes: Jeff Teague (4.4 apg)
For the Stat Geeks:	For the Stat Geeks:
Offensive Rating: 100.7 (26th NBA)	Offensive Rating: 102.5 (23rd NBA)
Defensive Rating: 100.2 (3rd NBA)	Defensive Rating: 100.6 (6th NBA)
Pace: 90.1 (21st NBA)	Pace: 90.1 (20th NBA)

Last time

The Celtics won the series last season 2-1. Paul Pierce led the Celtics with an average of 17.7 points to go along with 5.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists in the three games.

This time

Get it to: Paul Pierce

Pierce is having his best month of the season so far. His shooting is up 5% over last month and he's averaging 6 more points per game. He's averaging 20.4 ppg post-all star game and 22.3 ppg in March. I know he's going to have his ups and downs, but he and KG are our best scoring options… and Pierce won't have Josh Smith to worry about.

Gotta stop: Josh Smith

Speaking of Josh, have you seen what he's been doing lately. In February, he averaged 17.1 ppg. In March? 25.2 ppg. He's averaging 9.5 rebounds per game… but against the Celtics, he could get 19.

The Wild Card: The Celtics Bench

If there's ever a time for this bench to figure itself out, this is it. And I'm not asking for these guys to magically start producing huge performances. I know they're not going to do that. I WOULD like to see the second unit come in and not turn the ball over 3 or 4 straight times.