No. 1 Boston Celtics vs. No. 8 Atlanta Hawks
Big 3 have Celtics' fans believing
Overview: Boston made the biggest one-year improvement in the history of the NBA thanks to general manager Danny Ainge's offseason trades landing Kevin Garnett from Minnesota and Ray Allen from Seattle. But Atlanta's improvement from an NBA laughingstock to the playoffs has been nearly as impressive.
While the Western Conference is better from top to bottom, Boston was the class of the league during the regular season. The Celtics went 25-5 against the West this year, proving their best-in-the-association 66-16 record was no fluke. The big question at the start of the year was whether the egos of three stars like Garnett, Allen and Paul Pierce could coexist on one team. It wasn't ever a problem. All three, in fact, seemed to like the fact that they were no longer asked to carry their respective teams. All three still got plenty of shots, too, averaging 17 or more points. The supporting cast wasn't as bad as thought, either. Led by point guard Rajon Rondo, the Celtics even won some games late in the year with their three stars resting.
The Hawks, meanwhile, have a young team that will likely just be happy to be in the playoffs. This is a team, if it can stay together, that could make some noise in the future, but not this time around.
Season series: Celtics won, 3-0
Sunday at Celtics, 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday Celtics, 6 p.m.
April 26: at Hawks, 6 p.m.
April 28: at Hawks, 6 p.m
April 30: at Celtics, TBA*
May 2: at Hawks, TBA*
May 4: at Celtics, TBA*
if necessary *
E-mail: lojo@desnews.com
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