ATLien

I don't agree that Boston doesn't have more talent than Atlanta, but I don't think you are going to hear any player admit that another team is better than them. I do agree that Atlanta is shooting themselves in the foot. Boston is not really doing anything different than they were earlier in the series. Atlanta just needs to execute better. And not send their best player to the bench for 10+ minutes in the second quarter.


Joe Johnson refuses to buy into the notion that the Celtics [team stats] are clearly the better team.

Even after the Celtics pummeled Johnson’s Atlanta Hawks, 110-85, last night at the Garden to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, the standout guard is convinced the difference between the two teams is closer than one might expect.

“We lost a lot of games during the year that if we won, we would have gotten a higher seed,” said Johnson, who poured in a team-high 21 points. “But the seed we have now is great, I don’t think the team we’re playing is that much better than us. I don’t think they have much more talent than us.”

Johnson was the main reason why the Hawks returned from Atlanta with series all even. The former Celtic was a one-man wrecking crew in the fourth quarter Monday night, scoring 20 of his playoff career-high 35 points, as the Hawks erased a 10-point deficit. Last night was a different story as Johnson was double-teamed all over the floor. He was rarely given a chance to roam as freely as he did 48 hours earlier.

“They trapped pretty much every time I caught the ball, which was expected,” he said. “But we’re not very disciplined on the road in running our offense, or getting into sets or moving the basketball. That’s why we’re losing games here by 20 points. We just have to be more aggressive. We need to have guys step up and make plays. We can’t just settle for jump shots. We got to drive the basketball and we’re not doing that.”

Johnson refused to buy into the notion that part of the Celtics’ Game 5 success was predicated on a more physical approach at the defensive end.

“That wasn’t a problem; it was something we can deal with,” he said. “I just think offensively and defensively, we’re not communicating and we are not running our sets. Then if we do run our sets, we’re not running them hard, so we are really making it tough on ourselves when the game isn’t that hard at all.

“It’s nothing they’re doing, we’re just not executing.”

If there is a silver lining for the Hawks, it comes from the knowledge that Johnson’s team knows it can beat the Celtics on its homecourt, having done so twice.

“We still got life, it ain’t over yet,” Johnson said. “We got to go home and take care of business, and that’s that.”