The Atlanta Hawks continued their playoff push last night by getting one of their biggest wins of the season.

Just a few days after losing to the Celtics in Boston, Atlanta got their revenge on the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference and paired with a 76ers loss to Miami last night, Atlanta now sits in an advantageous position to get into the top six and make the playoffs and avoid the play-in tournament for the first time since 2021.

Let’s break down the win from last night.

The Good

A win is always good and this win was huge for the Hawks not just because of what it did for them in the standings, but because they beat a good team and showed that this is more than just a winning streak against tanking teams.

The Hawks defeated the Boston Celtics 112-102 on 3/30 at State Farm Arena, marking Atlanta’s 13th straight win inside the award-winning State Farm Arena, its longest single-season home winning streak since the 1996-97 campaign (20, 11/12/96-2/12/97). With tonight’s win, Atlanta finishes the month of March with a 13-2 record. It’s the most wins in a single month since January 2015 (17) and tied for the fourth-most wins in a single month in franchise history.

The Hawks recorded six blocks in tonight’s victory, marking their 40th game with five or more rejections this season. Atlanta is now 26-14 when blocking five or more shots.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker tallied 17 points to go along with four rebounds and six assists in 35 minutes of play. The Virginia Tech product secured his career-best 45th straight game scoring in double figures, and his 71st double-digit scoring outing of the season, tied for the second-most such games in the NBA and the most such games in a single season in his career. With his three triples tonight, Alexander-Walker has knocked down at least one three-pointer in 22 straight games, the second-longest such streak of his career.

Jalen Johnson recorded a team-high, tying 20 points on 7-13 shooting in addition to 12 rebounds and five assists in 36 minutes of play, marking his 45th double-double of the season, the third-most such games in the NBA this season. In tonight’s victory, Johnson notched his 26th game of the season with 20+ points, 10+ rebounds, and 5+ assists, the most such games of any Eastern Conference player and the most in a single season in franchise history.

Onyeka Okongwu recorded a team-high, tying 20 points on 7-14 shooting, including 4-10 from downtown, in addition to 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals, and one block in 36 minutes of action, marking his 16th double-double of the season and the 67th of his career. In tonight’s win, Okongwu notched his sixth game of the season with 20+ points and 10+ rebounds.

Dyson Daniels recorded 18 points on 8-11 shooting, including 2-3 from deep, in addition to five rebounds, five assists, and two steals in 38 minutes of action, marking his league-leading 47th multi-steal game of the season. Daniels secured his 125th career game with 10+ points. Of his 125 such games, 107 have come since joining the Hawks over the past two seasons. The fourth-year pro has dished out 5+ assists in a career-best 44 games this season. Entering tonight’s game, he was averaging a career-high 5.9 assists per game.

CJ McCollum recorded 14 points in addition to six assists and a season-high two blocks in 30 minutes of play, marking his 64th game of the season scoring 10-or-more points.

The bench played one of its best games. Zaccharie Risacher and Jonathan Kumigna did not put up massive stat lines, but they played really good defense and helped Atlanta get the win.

The defense was the reason for victory. Boston only shot 41% from the field and 38% from three while Celtics star Jaylen Brown went 9-29 from the field. Atlanta also forced 15 turnovers.

Atlanta outscored Boston 48-30 in the paint.

The Bad

Not a lot of bad came from this game, but the Hawks did lose the rebounding battle again and gave up 17 second chance points to the Celtics.

The Ugly

While Boston was missing Neemias Queta and Nikola Vucevic, Atlanta allowed Luka Garza to shoot 8-9 from the field and he was a +6 in the 28 minutes that he played.