{"id":567800,"date":"2026-01-29T04:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T04:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/567800\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T04:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T04:48:17","slug":"celtics-suffer-rare-blowout-loss-on-bad-day-at-the-office-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/567800\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics suffer rare blowout loss on ‘bad day at the office’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eleven days after being blown out by the Celtics on their home floor, the Hawks got their revenge at TD Garden.<\/p>\n

Atlanta led by as many as 23 points Wednesday night in a 117-106 win over Boston. It was the first double-digit defeat for the Celtics since Dec. 11 \u2014 when they lost by 15 to the Milwaukee Bucks \u2014 and their first at home since Nov. 1, when they were routed by the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust one of those nights,\u201d Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. \u201cThey played better than us. They got the best of us. \u2026 Didn\u2019t play well, they did, and you kind of move on. Just a bad day at the office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaylen Brown scored a team-high 21 points, but shot 9-for-20 from the field and 0-for-5 from 3-point range. Boston struggled as a team from beyond the arc, going 9-for-34 (26.5%). Brown said he \u201cjust didn\u2019t have it\u201d and did not \u201cplay to (his) standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atlanta shot 43% from deep (18-for-42) and tallied 11 steals \u2014 including five by All-Defensive guard Dyson Daniels \u2014 to Boston\u2019s two. Daniels, multiple Celtics players noted, did not play when the C\u2019s steamrolled the Hawks 132-106 last Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, Daniels himself is a game-wrecker,\u201d Sam Hauser said. \u201cHe\u2019s really good at pressuring the ball. He\u2019s got great hands to get steals and in passing lanes and all that. So just him alone changes the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s minus-24 in 29 minutes was the second-worst mark on the team behind Payton Pritchard\u2019s minus-30. Both were off the floor during Boston\u2019s most productive stretch, during which it cut Atlanta\u2019s lead to 11 before fading in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

The Celtics, who fell to 29-18, will continue their four-game homestand Friday against the Sacramento Kings (7:30 p.m.).<\/p>\n

\"AtlantaAtlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson (1) fouls Boston Celtics guard Baylor Scheierman during the second half Wednesday. (Photo By Matt Stone\/Boston Herald)<\/p>\n

With starting center Neemias Queta out sick, Amari Williams started for the second time in three games (and the second time in his career), getting the nod over Luka Garza. The second-round rookie had chances for early baskets but missed a pair of shots at the rim \u2014 one off a pick-and-roll feed from Jaylen Brown and another on a lob from Derrick White. Williams also was whistled for an illegal screen.<\/p>\n

The most surprising aspect of Williams\u2019 first quarter, though, was his workload. The two-way player was on the floor for 11 of the 12 minutes, with head coach Joe Mazzulla quickly pulling Garza after the veteran committed a turnover and a shooting foul. Williams was just the third Celtics center in the last three seasons to log double-digit minutes in an opening quarter.<\/p>\n

Those proved to be the only meaningful minutes Williams played in the game. He sat the rest of the night, with Mazzulla pivoting toward a combination of Garza and smaller lineups that featured 6-foot-6 Jordan Walsh at the five.<\/p>\n

The first quarter was one the Celtics would prefer to forget. They shot 30% from the field and 27.3% from three as the Hawks \u2014 who made eight of their first 11 3-pointers \u2014 built a 20-point lead. Simons did what he could to spark Boston\u2019s scuffling offense with a pair of threes and an out-of-timeout layup, but the Celtics still entered the second quarter down 38-18.<\/p>\n

\"AtlantaAtlanta Hawks guard CJ McCollum (3) fouls Boston Celtics guard Hugo Gonzalez during the second half. (Photo By Matt Stone\/Boston Herald)<\/p>\n

The Celtics were able to cut into that deficit with runs of 10-2 and 8-0 that bookended the second quarter. A key cog in both of those: Garza, who played the entire second quarter and was productive throughout, tallying 11 points, six rebounds and a block. Mazzulla stuck with Garza to open the second half.<\/p>\n

Atlanta still entered halftime with a comfortable 60-46 lead, however, after Boston squandered a chance to draw closer by botching the final possession of the half. Brown shot 4-for-13 in the first half, and rookie Hugo Gonzalez \u2014 often a difference-maker off the bench \u2014 had issues defending the Hawks\u2019 shooters.<\/p>\n

The Hawks then scored on six of their seven possessions of the second half, including three consecutive 3-pointers, to reestablish their 20-point lead.<\/p>\n

But Boston controlled much of the third quarter, responding with a 21-10 run powered mainly by White and an undersized second unit. White (11 points, 5-of-13) was active at both ends with nine points, one block and one steal in the quarter, and Baylor Scheierman was a much-needed energizer off the bench.<\/p>\n

The second-year pro, who\u2019s used his penchant for dirty-work hustle plays to carve out a role in Mazzulla\u2019s rotation, drew a change, set up Gonzalez for a 3-pointer and got to the foul line five times in the third quarter alone, equaling his season total of free-throw attempts entering Wednesday night. The Garden crowd cried for a flagrant foul after Onyeka Okongwu wrapped up Scheierman to stop a fast break, but the officials did not award it.<\/p>\n

\"BostonBoston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard (11) reaches around Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson during the second half of an NBA game at the TD Garden. (Photo By Matt Stone\/Boston Herald)<\/p>\n

Head referee Mark Lindsay drew Mazzulla\u2019s ire a short while later when a no-call on a Scheierman rebound attempt resulted in a Hawks putback. Mazzulla was hit with a technical foul, and assistant Sam Cassell nearly lost his footing while trying to prevent his boss from arguing further.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a little bit to get your point across, a little bit to try and spark the team and whatnot,\u201d Mazzulla said.<\/p>\n

Scheierman went 1-for-5 in the loss but was a plus-11 in his 17 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to see that,\u201d Pritchard said. \u201cI remember being in that position, coming in and you\u2019re giving your team some energy, everything you\u2019ve got. (The bench) did a great job tonight. Obviously, the starting group didn\u2019t do their job.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Anfernee Simons floater cut Atlanta\u2019s lead to 87-76 entering the fourth quarter. Then, the Celtics\u2019 comeback stalled.<\/p>\n

Down 106-92 with 6:43 remaining, Brown caught Okongwu in the face with an errant arm, knocking out one of the Hawks center\u2019s front teeth. Officials deemed the play worthy of a flagrant 1 foul, giving Okongwu two free throws and Atlanta possession. A Daniels putback dunk, followed by a deep, left-handed, banked-in 3-pointer from Nickeil Alexander-Walker over Pritchard, made it 114-96.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, you just tip your cap and be like, \u2018It\u2019s probably their night tonight,\u2019\u201d Pritchard said. \u201c\u2026 I\u2019ve known (Alexander-Walker) for a long time and I know he\u2019s ambidextrous, and that even surprised me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans began heading for the exits, and Mazzulla pulled his regulars, sending in Williams and wing Josh Minott. Those garbage-time minutes were Minott\u2019s first since Jan. 3; he missed 10 straight games with an ankle sprain and has not been part of Boston\u2019s regular rotation since late December.<\/p>\n

The loss dropped Boston into a tie with New York for second place in the Eastern Conference standings, with the Knicks owning the tiebreaker. The Celtics, who are 6-6 in their last 12 games, will be eyeing a bounce-back when they host the lottery-bound 12-36 Kings on Friday. Sacramento owns the second-worst record in the West and has lost six straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019re just hitting a tough stretch a little bit,\u201d Pritchard said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to find our juice back. We show flashes of it, and then we take a game off. But it is a tough stretch. I feel like if you look around the league, everybody\u2019s kind of plateauing a little bit, struggling game to game. So this is where we\u2019ve got to mentally break through and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eleven days after being blown out by the Celtics on their home floor, the Hawks got their revenge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3766],"tags":[3602,7,45,75,3798,46,33263,8288,8289,8287,78,871,6],"class_list":["post-567800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-celtics","tag-amari-williams","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-boston-celtics","tag-bostonceltics","tag-celtics","tag-celtics-hawks","tag-celtics-highlights","tag-celtics-recap","tag-celtics-score","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-kristaps-porzingis","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115976583031826286","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}