Hawks set for rematch with Cavs

Atlanta advances to semifinal after burying Boston

The Atlanta Hawks had the best regular season in franchise history spoiled by a dismal showing against Cleveland in last year's Eastern Conference final.

Now they're getting another shot at the Cavaliers in this year's semifinal.

Paul Millsap had 17 points and eight rebounds as the Hawks advanced to the second round with a 104-92 Game 6 victory over the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.

Al Horford and Kent Bazemore each added 15 points for the Hawks, who earned their first playoff series win over Boston since the 1958 Finals.

"Good to finally beat them," said Hawks point guard Jeff Teague, who was on Atlanta's 2012 team that lost to Boston in the first round. "It feels real good."

The Hawks open the second round on Monday at Cleveland.

Boston's last three playoff appearances have ended in first-round exits.

Coming off a 27-point win in Game 5, the Hawks took advantage of poor shooting by the Celtics on Thursday, building on leads that stretched to as much as 28 points.

The Hawks blew the game open with a 39-point third quarter in which they shot 74 percent from the field.

"I think we learned from before with this team that no lead is safe," Horford said.

"To open the third it was important for us to get off to a good start and just keep attacking and have that mentality of keep attacking, play after play.

"I felt we did that consistently in the third and that was the big difference."

The Celtics shot just 36 percent for the game. They made a final charge to get as close as 10 points, but Atlanta was able to close it out.

Isaiah Thomas led Boston with 25 points and 10 assists, but most of that came in the second half during the comeback effort after being bottled up early.

"We just wore them down," Teague said. "We tried to make other players beat us. He (Thomas) is a one-man wrecking crew. They have other good players over there, but everybody feeds off him."

Jae Crowder added 15 points for Boston, but it wasn't enough to turn around the second straight game underlined by their inconsistencies.

For most of the game, the Hawks simply benefited from Boston's struggles.

The Celtics played most of the second half with Crowder battling foul trouble.

He went to the bench after picking up his fourth foul with 11:21 left in third quarter. Coach Brad Stevens rolled the dice and reinserted him, only for Crowder to be called for his fifth foul with 8:13 to play.

Crowder fouled out with three minutes to play, but most of the damage was done much earlier.

(China Daily 04/30/2016 page12)