Business-like control: 10 Takeaways from Boston Celtics-Atlanta Hawks Game 4

1. The best descriptor for the Boston Celtics Game 4 victory over the Atlanta Hawks is “business-like”. Boston was in control for the entire game. Atlanta’s biggest lead came when they were up 3-0 after their first shot. The Hawks last lead was 11-9 with 8:29 to play in the first quarter.

The Celtics didn’t exactly roll to victory, as their biggest lead was only 14 points. But it felt like the entire game was played with Boston leading by somewhere between 10 and six points.

The good sign for the Celtics was that whenever the Hawks made even a mini-run, Boston had an answer. And it wasn’t always just the old standby of “Give it to Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and wait for them to create something”. Multiple Celtics answered the call. And that has Boston on the verge of moving on to the second round.

2. Despite the approach not being “Give it to Brown and Tatum”, the Celtics stars had plenty of impact in the second half.

Brown scored 22 of his 31 points after the break. Tatum had 18 of his 31 after aftertime. In the fourth quarter, the two stars combined for 28 points on 8-of-14 shooting. All of the buckets we’re about to show you came from the second half, as Brown and Tatum exerted their collective will on the Hawks.

After ditching his mask for the first time in months, Brown went on the attack. He catches this ball and immediately knows Saddiq Bey’s hips are open and the driving lane is there. Brown hangs for the nice finish:

Boston did a nice job of attacking the Atlanta bigs all game. Brown uses the runway here to get into Onyeka Okongwu to draw the and-1 with the strong finish:

Perhaps fearful of being beaten off the dribble, De’Andre Hunter is about a step too far from Brown here. This is a confident rise-and-fire from deep:

It took him a bit to find his range, but Tatum eventually got the jumpers to fall. This is the classic mismatch here. Murray is too small to really bother Tatum’s jumper, even if the closeout isn’t bad:

This is another example of Boston taking advantage of the bad Hawks defense. Why is anyone wandering away from Tatum here? He made them pay for this sloppiness:

Once Tatum was rolling, it didn’t matter how good the Hawks defense was:

At the end, Brown and Tatum each helped put a capper on the victory. First, Brown rescued this mess of a possession after some outstanding hustle from Rob Williams:

The next play, Tatum emphatically finished off the Hawks:

3. Rob Williams…