ATLANTA (AP) — Al Horford hit a huge three-pointer against his former team, Boston Celtics He broke open a tight game in the final minutes to end Atlanta hawk128-120, on Thursday night for a 4-2 win in the inaugural round-robin series.
The second-seeded Celtics advance to face the third-seeded Philadelphia 76erswho have been resting since finishing with a four-game sweep of Brooklyn last Saturday.
Game 1 Monday night in Boston.
Boston took an 11-0 lead that included three consecutive three-pointers, with Horford’s big shot converting three goals from Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Tatum capped the surge with a dunk, giving the Celtics a 121-113 lead with 2:07 remaining.
Brown led the Celtics with 32 points, while Tatum scored 30. As for Horford, who played in Atlanta from 2007 to 2016, he scored 10 points and 12 rebounds.
After the Hawks pulled off an improbable Game 5 victory in Boston, Atlanta’s Trae Young ran out of power in the second half. He’s missed 12 of 13 shots over the last two quarters.
Young scored 30 points and 10 assists, but only finished nine out of 28 points from the field.
Marcus Smart was also big for Boston, scoring 22 points and masterfully managing Boston’s offense.
Dejounte Murray returned to the Hawks’ lineup after serving a one-game suspension for colliding with an official at the end of Atlanta’s Game 4 loss.
Murray seemed a bit out of sync, missing all five of his shots in the first half. He was better in the second half but only managed 14 points.
Young forced the series back in Atlanta with a long three-pointer that stunned the Celtics, 119-117, in Game 5 in Boston, capping an unlikely Hawks comeback from a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
With his 38-point and 13-assist effort, Young maintained an 18-point lead in the first quarter.
But the Celtics are finally stressing out the Hawks star, whose heroics forced Janet Jackson to postpone her scheduled concert Thursday until Friday to make room for Game 6.
Now, State Farm Arena is wide open for the summer.
Boston finished 18 of 42 from three-point range. All of Boston’s starting team made at least one long-running player, as did three players off the bench. Malcolm Bergaudon scored 17 points. Tatum led the Celtics with 14 rebounds.
All five of Atlanta’s starters scored in double digits. DeAndre Hunter scored 20 points, John Collins added 16 points, and Clint Cabella scored 10 points.