{"id":683823,"date":"2026-03-28T08:40:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T08:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/683823\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T08:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T08:40:24","slug":"celtics-ground-hawks-109-102-despite-early-hole-no-jaylen-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/683823\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics ground Hawks 109-102 despite early hole, no Jaylen Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 27, 2026, 10:40 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Boston Celtics got punched hard in the mouth early by the Atlanta Hawks, but weathered the storm to win 109-102 despite falling into a 16-point deficit in the contest&#8217;s first frame. That they did so without star forward Jaylen Brown (out with Achilles tendinitis) made the victory all the more impressive for Boston, who held onto a lead for most of the second half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Reserve guard Payton Pritchard led all scorers with 36 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists, and Brown&#8217;s costar on the wing, Jayson Tatum, added a season-high 26 points, 12 boards, and 5 assists. Among the starters, Sam Hauser (10 points) and Derrick White (10 points) scored in double figures, and off the bench, backup big man Luka Garza added another 11 points and 4 rebounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">With the win, the Celtics improve to 49-24 on the season while extending their lead over the New York Knicks to 1.5 games in their grip on the Eastern Conference&#8217;s second-place spot.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:440px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/89357952007-usatsi-28601559.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mar 27, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard (11) reacts after making a basket during the second half against the Atlanta Hawks at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">It remains to be seen whether Boston can hang onto that spot with one of the league&#8217;s toughest remaining schedules while trailing the first-place Detroit Pistons by four games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Celtics will next play the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday, March 29 on the road.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Listen to &#8220;Havlicek Stole the Pod&#8221; on:<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Blue Wire:<a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/CdKp\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> https:\/\/tiny.ee\/CdKp<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">iTunes: <a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/RK47\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tiny.ee\/RK47<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">YouTube: <a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/cOW3\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tiny.ee\/cOW3<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 27, 2026, 10:40 p.m. ET The Boston Celtics got punched hard in the mouth early by the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[72400,676,208,3874,7,677,6,72493,72494,72404,72498,72999,72405,72501,72998,72406,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-683823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-hawks","11":"tag-atlantahawks","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-hawks","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sstssportsnbaceltics","16":"tag-sstsnceltics","17":"tag-tagbasketball","18":"tag-tagderrick-white","19":"tag-tagluka-garza","20":"tag-tagoverall-positive","21":"tag-tagpayton-pritchard","22":"tag-tagsam-hauser","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116305912987389307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683823","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=683823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}