The Atlanta Hawks achieved an outstanding victory over the best team in the National Basketball Association (NBA) - the Boston Celtics, with 120:118 at home in another match of the regular season of the League. The Hawks trailed by 30 points with just under four-and-a-half minutes left in the first half, but ended up with a remarkable win against a Celtics team riding a nine-game winning streak.
The hero for the Hawks was De'Andre Hunter, who scored a decisive three-pointer with 9.2 seconds remaining. Hunter finished with a game-high 24 points for the winners. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 22, and Dejounte Murray and Clint Capela finished with double-doubles - Murray scored 19 points and gave as many as 15 assists, and Capela finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Vit Krejci and Bruno Fernando contributed 16 and 13 points, respectively.
For the leaders in the Eastern Conference, Jayson Tatum topped everyone with 37 points. Jaylen Brown added 24, Kristaps Porzingis contributed 17 and Payton Pritchard scored 15 off the bench, but Joe Mazzula's Boston was shocked by its hosts at State Farm Arena. It was the biggest turnaround for the Hawks since as early as the 1997-98 season, when the NBA began keeping detailed statistics about play to play action.
Boston leads the East with a record of 57-15, while Atlanta is in tenth position in the same conference with 32 wins and 39 losses. The two teams will face each other again in Georgia on Thursday, with the Hawks warming up for a showdown before that with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Elsewhere, Domantas Sabonis made history by recording his 54th consecutive NBA double-double. The Lithuanian center finished with a triple-double - 11 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists - in the success of the Sacramento Kings over the Philadelphia 76ers with 108:96 at home. Sabonis surpassed Kevin Love's record of 53 consecutive double-doubles in 2010-11, the Lithuanian's 54th since the NBA and ABA merged in 1976-77. He falls short of Wilt Chamberlain's mind-boggling 227 consecutive double-doubles. It was also Sabonis' 25th triple-double of the season, making him just the fifth player to do so in a single season behind Nikola Jokic, Russell Westbrook, Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson.
Otherwise, the Kings achieved an important victory in the battle for a spot in the playoffs. The best Bulgarian basketball player Alexander Vezenkov did not play for the Kings again. Sacramento is in sixth place in the West with a record of 42-29 – the same number as the seventh-ranked Dallas Mavericks. Philadelphia is eighth in the Eastern Conference with 39 wins and 33 losses. In their next games, the Sixers welcome the LA Clippers, while the Kings host Dallas.
The rest of the results:
Cleveland Cavaliers - Charlotte Hornets 115:92
Toronto Raptors - Brooklyn Nets 88:96
New York Knicks - Detroit Pistons 124:99
San Antonio Spurs - Phoenix Suns 104:102
Houston Rockets - Portland Trail Blazers 110:92
Chicago Bulls - Washington Wizards 105:107
Utah Jazz - Dallas Mavericks 105:115
Denver Nuggets - Memphis Grizzlies 128:103
LA Clippers - Indiana Pacers 116:133. /BGNES
