ATLANTA — A lot of things happened in the first game of our 2016 playoff spring.
We saw the Celtics fall behind the Hawks by 19 points in the first half. We saw the Green take a 3-point lead in the fourth quarter. We saw Isaiah Thomas (27 points) work his magic and Brad Stevens’s first technical in two years. We saw Avery Bradley limp to the locker room with a hamstring injury in the fourth quarter. We saw the Celtics blow some golden opportunities down the stretch. We saw a dumb foul by a guy named Smart with the Celtics down 3 with 36 seconds left in the game. Finally, we saw Atlanta beat Boston, 102-101, in the first game of their seven-game series.
It was a wild one that wasn’t over until Smart’s three-quarter-court Hail Mary thumped off the backboard after the buzzer sounded.
And so Stevens, three years into his Celtics tenure, must wait at least a few more days before the first NBA playoff win of his life. And it looks like he’s going to have to get it without starting guard Bradley, who heard his right hamstring pop in the final quarter. Bradley left the arena using one crutch to support his right leg. It’s hard to imagine seeing him on the court again this season.
“We lost a brother, that hurts us,’’ said Marcus Smart, who had a breakout game (15 points, three treys), before his questionable intentional foul in the final minute.
For a long time Saturday night it looked like the Celtics were going to get blown out in their playoff opener. It looked like a wire-to-wire win for the Hawks. Then everything changed. It was a little bit like Wednesday night’s season finale when the Celtics fell behind the Heat by 26 in the first half, but wound up winning the game.
Saturday’s dramatic comeback against the Hawks would have been much better. The Celtics demonstrated they can play with Atlanta — something we really didn’t see when the Green were swept by the Cavaliers last spring.
These Celtics finished the 2015-16 regular season on a downer, losing two straight, then falling behind Miami by 26 points in the finale. The Celtics amazing comeback turned out to be the worst thing that could have happened: it matched them up with the Hawks (instead of the Heat) in the first round and you don’t need de facto commissioner Bob Ryan to tell you the Hawks are a “bad matchup’’ for the Celtics.
Strange, but true. The Celtics, Hawks, Hornets and Heat all finished with identical regular-season records (48-34), but the Celtics simply don’t do well against the Hawks. Counting Saturday night, the Hawks have beaten the Celtics four of five this season, including four in a row, and two in the last eight days.
The Hawks look like a 2.0 version of your Boston Celtics. They are starless and selfless and they play good defense and they pass the ball nicely. Atlanta’s big people are better than Boston’s big people. The Hawks do not present as a team that will be surprised by the hungry, hustling Celtics. Then again, as the old saying goes, a playoff series has not really begun until the road team wins a game.
Playing professional sports in Atlanta is a challenge for those who dare, especially for those who don’t play professional football. The Hawks and Braves have no chance when matched up against mighty college football. The locals went all-in with the lightshow before Saturday’s high-stakes hoop game, but there was no disguising the truth that the most important regional sporting event of this day was the Georgia intramural spring football game, aka “G Day’’ in Athens. While the Celtics and Hawks went through informal late-afternoon workouts on the arena floor, all the TVs in the joint were tuned into SEC spring football instead of the Warriors-Rockets playoff game.
Back in Boston, where many folks actually care about the NBA, there was considerable grousing about the Green Team’s first-round draw.
“This is a really good team,’’ Stevens said before Game 1. “They are playing at as good a level as any team in the East right now.’’
The Hawks bolted to leads of 9-2 and 20-10 in the first quarter. It looked like the locals were skating on a power play. The Celtics made only five of their first 19 shots.
Atlanta led, 30-19 after one. Allowing 30 points in a quarter is not the way to set the tone for the playoffs.
Atlanta’s lead peaked at 19 and the Hawks settled for 51-34 lead at intermission.
“We got to find a way to start better,’’ acknowledged Jae Crowder, who shot 1 for 10 in the first half.
The Celtics put together a nice little run at the start of the third, cutting the deficit to 9 and forcing a timeout. A Bradley breakaway bucket cut the deficit to 5 with five minutes left in the third. Atlanta led, 72-65 after three.
The fourth quarter belonged to Smart and Thomas. A three by Crowder gave the Celtics an 83-80 lead with 6:49 left.
But the Hawks did not panic. Not even when Thomas hit a three to cut Atlanta’s lead to 1 point with 0.4 showing on the clock.
Years of experience have trained us to remain calm at a time like this. Remember back in the day when the Celtics smoked the Lakers, 148-114, in the first game of the 1985 NBA Finals and then lost the series in SIX games?
“We ride this way,’’ said Stevens, who seemed encouraged, despite the loss and the injury to Bradley. “We guard, we grind, we try to find a way. I felt really good about the way we were attacking them all night.’’
One game in an NBA series is not a big deal and on Saturday the Celtics showed us that they can win this series.
Dan Shaughnessy can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com
