All eyes will be on Atlanta Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. ET. In the lone game on the NBA’s playoff slate, the seventh-seeded Hawks will once again try to stay alive and extend their first-round series with the Boston Celtics — this time, on their home floor.
During the NBA Playoffs, The Athletic’s writers will make their straight-up picks. You’ll find picks, coverage and the latest odds here. Our in-depth NBA coverage is linked below the picks. For live NBA odds from BetMGM, click here.
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Here is the rundown of Atlanta’s improbable Game 5 comeback and what to expect in Game 6.
No. 7 Hawks vs. No. 2 Celtics
8:30 p.m. ET on TNT
What are the odds for the Hawks vs. Celtics?
Series: Celtics lead 3-2
Series odds: Celtics -2500, Hawks +1200
Playing on their home floor and against a Hawks team that had lost Dejounte Murray to a one-game suspension for making contact with an official just after the final buzzer of Game 4, the Celtics entered Game 5 as 8.5-point favorites.
Not many expected the Hawks to extend this series back to Atlanta. Not the oddsmakers. Not media analysts. Not even State Farm Center, which booked Janet Jackson for a Thursday night show that has since been pushed back to accommodate Game 6.
But Trae Young and company had other plans, engineering a 13-point comeback in the final 6:10 of the fourth quarter to win 119-117.
Young was the star of that stretch, scoring 14 points and draining an ice-cold, snatch-back 30-footer with 1.8 seconds to play that proved the dagger.
EVERY ANGLE of Trae Young’s Game 5 game-winner 🥶 He dropped 38 PTS and 13 AST. Ice cold. pic.twitter.com/0sGtPHDNd9 — NBA (@NBA) April 26, 2023
Young posted 38 points and 13 assists in the game while playing every minute of the second half, and is now averaging 35 points, 12.3 assists and shooting 37.9% from 3-point range across Games 3, 4 and 5. All of which is to say: he has not only bounced back from his early-series struggles, he has now put the heavily-favored Celtics on their heels.
Boston also deserves flak for what was an historically epic meltdown. Key turnovers by Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart — plus Smart’s needless foul on Young at midcourt that allowed him two free throws to put the Hawks ahead 116-115 with 15 seconds left — stand out. The result was the first time in 31 instances that a home team leading 3-1 in a series and by double-digits entering the fourth quarter lost a Game 5 since 2003, when the first-round format changed to best-of-seven.
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Even as this series shifts back to Atlanta and Murray returns, the Celtics are favored for Game 6. And they do have a track record for bounce-back road wins following head-scratching home losses in the playoffs, like last year’s season-saving win over the Milwaukee Bucks after squandering a double-digit fourth quarter lead in Game 5 to fall behind 3-2 in that second-round series. Tatum scored 46 points in that contest, which would certainly be welcome after he struggled to the tune of 19 points and 1-for-10 3-point shooting on Tuesday.
But with Young ascending to another level and several Hawks role players riding high after impactful Game 5 performances, this series no longer looks like a foregone conclusion.
Expert picks for Hawks vs. Celtics
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(Photo of Trae Young: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)