The Celtics had a "bad day at the office" following a 117-106 loss to the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday night at TD Garden.
Jaylen Brown led seven players in double-digit scoring with 21 points, seven rebounds, while Sam Hauser (seven rebounds), Payton Pritchard and Derrick White each scored 12 points respectively for the Celtics -- who fell to 29-18 and tied with the New York Knicks for the second-best record in the East.
"I don't think we played to our standard tonight," Brown said in his postgame comments after shooting 9-of-20 from the field, including 0-of-5 from 3-point range. "I don't think I played to my standard and that was a part of it. The team feeds off of my energy as well. Being a leader, I got to be better and tonight I didn't have it."
Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 21 points, while Jalen Johnson recorded a double-double of 19 points, 14 rebounds to go along with seven assists, Onyeka Okongwu added 17 points and Dyson Daniels chipped in 15 points, nine assists for the Hawks -- that improved to 24-25 on the season and avenged a 132-106 loss to Boston 10 days ago in Atlanta.
The Hawks jumped out to a 38-18 advantage after the first quarter and led by as much as 23, but were never in real danger of succumbing to any rally by the home team, despite a 21-10 Celtics run to cut the deficit to single digits in the third period.
By the final frame and no real sign of life, Joe Mazzulla finally pulled his starters with his team down 114-96 and 4:39 left to play.
"It's just one of those nights, they played better than us and got the best of us," Mazulla told reporters. "Just one of those nights we didn't play well and they did and you kind of move on. ... Just a bad day at the office."
The Celtics continue their homestand Friday night when they host the Sacramento Kings (12-36) at TD Garden.
Boston was 47% from the field, including 9-of-34 (26%) from deep while the Hawks connected on 48% from the floor and 18-of-42 (43%) from long distance. The Celtics won the rebound battle 51-38 but were outscored in the paint 44-38.
Joel Pavón
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