Boston – Josh Smith led the Atlanta Hawks with 15 points, 13 rebounds and five assists but the Hawks still fell to the Boston Celtics 101-79 in Game 4 of their best-of-seven series. Al Horford who wasn’t expected to be available for this series was activated for this game scoring 12 points and adding five rebounds off the bench.
Unfortunately Horford’s return didn’t spark the Hawks to play any better than they have all series. Smith did his best but was obviously still slowed by his knee injury.
The Hawks seemed to play much better without Smith and Horford in the lineup on Friday than they played with the two on the floor Sunday. Jannero Pargo was the only other Hawk to score in double figures in the game.
Boston led by as much as 37 points at one point and seemed to cruise to victory while resting their star players in the fourth quarter. Boston leads the series 3-1 and can eliminate the Hawks from the playoffs when the two teams face off in Atlanta on Tuesday.
Roosevelt Hall is a contributor for Outside The Redzone. Follow him on Twitter @Sportmentalist and check out his websites The Sport Mentalist (NFL blog) and The Sport Mentalist 2 (NBA blog).
