Celtics vs. Hawks game 3 preview

a blog by Big Red

Tonight the Celtics take on the Atlanta Hawks in Game 3 of the 7 game series. the Celtics trail 2-0, and have played pathetic first half's in both games. Hopefully, the home court will give the Celtics an advantage tonight as they look to win a game and gain some momentum. 

In Game 1 we came out slow, and relied to hard on our shooting. We fell into a hole early, and hung our heads. Our defense pulled us back into the game, with strong pressure coming from Bradley, Smart, and Crowder. While we played our ass off climbing back into the game, we took stupid shots down the stretch. Not to mention, we lost Avery Bradley to a hamstring injury and Kelly Olynyk to a shoulder injury. Olynyk sat out practice today, and Brad Stevens said he'll be  "questionable at best" for Tonight's game. In addition, I'm sure we all know that Avery Bradley is still ruled out for the series. 

Game 2: We came out weak once again, trailing 24-3 at one point in the 1st. The Celtics continue to rely on their 3 point shooting, which with the exception of Isaiah Thomas was mediocre at best during the regular season. Not to mention the Celtics were forced to play Terry Rozier and RJ Hunter, two rookies who got limited minutes during the regular season. All season long, I had been hoping Coach Stevens would give Rozier, Hunter, and Mickey more minutes just incase something like this happened. I have been a big fan of RJ ever since he appeared on the scene last march. Hopefully, Hunter and Rozier can prove their worth more tonight when the Hawks come to the garden. 

Keys to tonight's game:

- Come out strong, work the ball around and try to get everyone a touch before we chuck up a 3

- Stay on Korver. We Can't Afford to let him get going early, let alone at all. 

- Win the battle on the boards. I say this every time, but we cannot afford to give this team second chance buckets. 

Game starts at 8:00 pm eastern time, and can be watched on ESPN 2 or CSNE. (I definitely don't recommend ESPN. Myself and our baseball writer Iron Horse will be at the game, and in the Heineken Boardroom. Keep an eye out for our updates on twitter and vine @ForTheBoys_Blog