The Boston Celtics appeared to be on their way to another massive win Monday night in Atlanta when they stretched their first-half lead to 30 points over the Hawks.
The Hawks trailed 68-38 with 4:23 remaining in the second quarter. But the Hawks outscored the C's 82-50 from that point on to pull off a historic comeback in a 120-118 victory. De'Andre Hunter's clutch 3-pointer in the final 10 seconds of the fourth quarter wound up being the difference for Atlanta.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Boston sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
It's the first time this century that the Celtics blew a 30-point lead and lost. The defeat also snapped Boston's nine-game win streak and its 21-game win streak vs. sub-.500 teams.
The Celtics didn't keep their foot on the gas in the second half, and it ended up costing them in a huge way.
Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis didn't sugarcoat things after the game, and even admitted that some adversity might help the team before the playoffs commence next month.
"Maybe too much (confidence) a little bit, maybe we need to sometimes have a little bit more urgency," Porzingis told reporters postgame.
"But of course we're a confident team because of what we have shown, and we expect to win every game. It's a slip-up for us, letting this game slip out of our hands. But I like that we have some bumps heading into the postseason."
Check out the video above for Porzingis' full comments.
In the grand scheme of things, this loss isn't a huge deal for the Celtics, even though it's a painful one. What they can't do is let this loss result in some bad habits come playoff time.
Even though the Celtics own the league's best record and have already clinched the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, you don't want to go into the postseason not playing at a high level or without any rhythm.
"It’s the NBA, these kinds of things happen,” Porzingis said. “We just don’t want to make it a habit and it hasn’t been a habit for us. We slipped one game, and we did relax a little bit and we paid the price.”
