After mounting a historic 30 point comeback on Monday night, the Hawks faced off against the Celtics once again on Thursday. The Hawks ran with Dejounte Murray, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Vit Krejci, De’Andre Hunter, and Clint Capela as their starters, and this one finished in an even more thrilling fashion.
The Hawks turned it over on their first two possessions. After Jaylen Brown scored the first four points, a Clint Capela turnaround hook shot would be the first basket of the game for the Hawks. The Celtics led 16-11 seven minutes into the game, with Porzingis scoring seven of those points on seven shots.
Dejounte Murray scored a layup and then sank a three-pointer to take a 26-25 lead. After this, he came down a nailed a midrange to bring his total to 12 points, but the Celtics led 29-28 as time expired in the quarter.
10 PTS & 5 AST in the first quarter for DJ pic.twitter.com/osLYbeZRtk
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) March 29, 2024
Less than five minutes into the second quarter, Garrison Mathews drew an offensive foul on Jaylen Brown for Brown’s third foul of the game. The Celtics challenged, but it was ruled unsuccessful.
With around five minutes remaining in the second quarter, Murray nailed another triple to put the Hawks up 47-44. Trae Young walked onto the court after Murray hit this shot and was assessed a technical foul. The game was back-and-forth from this point. Capela snagged six offensive rebounds while the Celtics only had three. The Celtics led 63-59 at halftime.
Celtics 63, Hawks 59
Murray: 19 pts, 4 ast, 4 reb
Capela: 10 pts, 10 reb (6 OREB)
Bogi: 12 pts— joe schmidt (@Joe_Schmidt07) March 29, 2024
Early in the second half, De’Andre Hunter knocked down three-pointers on back to back possessions to overtake the lead again, at 69-68.
Dre comes out firing with a pair of threes to start the 3rd quarter pic.twitter.com/FwJo8WAMbX
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) March 29, 2024
Hunter went on to score two more three-pointers in the quarter, and ultimately scored 14 points. the Hawks entered the fourth quarter trailing 90-89. Dejounte Murray brought his total to 30 points with 6:42 remaining in the game. Both teams battled, and the score was 99-98 in the Hawks’ favor at this stoppage in play. Later, Bogdanovic knocked down his first three-pointer to take a 109-108 lead, but Tatum had an answer on the other end. De’Andre Hunter missed both free-throws at the charity stripe with one minute remaining. Jaylen Brown made a tough midrange, giving the Celtics a 112-109 lead.
Hunter rebounded a Murray miss and kicked out to Bogdanovic, who hit a game-tying three-pointer with 26.7 seconds left in the game. Tied at 112, Jayson Tatum missed a potential game-winning three at the buzzer.
Overtime had Dejounte Murray written all over it. He scored the first 9 points, and eventually broke the franchise record for shots attempted in a game with 44. With 6.2 seconds remaining, Jaylen Brown nailed a go-ahead midrange.
But Dejounte Murray drilled a go-ahead midrange with just 0.1 seconds left. The Hawks defeated the Celtics 123-122.
Dejounte Murray scores 11 PTS in OT and buries the game-winner!
He finished with a career-high 44. https://t.co/BJqOUoIK9O pic.twitter.com/HWDXnYD8ov
— NBA (@NBA) March 29, 2024