Lawrence Frank, who is still a finalist for the Detroit Pistons head coaching gig, has added another potential destination for next season: depending on whether Frank gets the Pistons job, Newsday reports that the Knicks and Frank have mutual interest in making Frank an assistant coach.

Whatever happens in Detroit could trigger Mike D’Antoni’s activity in searching for a defensive assistant coach.

All eyes will be on what happens with the Pistons head coaching position, as the finalists appear to be Mike Woodson and Lawrence Frank.

From what we’ve been hearing, D’Antoni personally likes Frank and there is a strong mutual interest there for many reasons.

First of all, whomever the Knicks hire would have to accept a one-year deal because D’Antoni is going into the final year of his contract and there is some uncertainty about his future. Frank, unlike most, would likely be amenable to accepting a one-year contract because it gives him the freedom to continue to look for head coaching jobs.

Frank might also prefer New York over returning to Boston for proximity reasons, as well, because he could be home full-time in New Jersey, where his wife and two daughters remained last season when he worked for the Celtics.

A move to New York would seem like a lateral move for Frank, at best. But it actually makes a lot of sense from a reputation standpoint. Hear me out.

If Frank stays in Boston, a large portion of his success will undoubtedly be attributed to Tom Thibodeau. Yeah, Frank’s the de facto defensive coordinator now — but he’s still running Thibodeau’s defensive schemes with several of the players Thibodeau molded. Stepping out of Thibodea’s shadow will prove almost impossible as long as Frank stays in Boston.

But in New York, Frank would move into a win-win situation. If the Knicks defense improves, Frank would be viewed as a miracle maker. Anyone who can forge a solid defense out of a starting lineup that includes Chauncey Billups, Carmel0 Anthony and Amare Stoudemire can obviously turn dirt into gold. On the other hand, if the Knicks defense still acts like swiss cheese, nobody would blame Frank — it’s impossible to turn Carmelo Anthony into a decent defender, isn’t it? In the worst-case scenario in New York, Frank’s defense would fail and New York would fall short of preseason expectations. But do you know what could very well be the end result of the “worst-case scenario”? D’Antoni gets fired and Frank probably jumps straight to the top of New York’s head coaching choices.

Of course, trying to coax a championship defense out of New York’s roster is like trying to ride the Tour de France with a tricycle. But if Frank could do it, he’d enhance his reputation in a way he never will in Boston. Even if he doesn’t do it, Frank’s reputation could reap the benefits of moving to the Big Apple.

P.S. – Mike Woodson will interview for the Minnesota Timberwolves lead gig today. If he gets that job, the Pistons would likely hire Frank, their only other finalist.

Lawrence Frank is not the leader in the clubhouse for the Detroit Pistons head coaching job, but he is close. The Celtics’ lilliputian assistant coach impressed the Detroit front office during the interview process and remains a finalist for the Detroit position. (ESPN)

NBA coaching sources say that the Pistons are inching closer to a decision, though.

Of the five known candidates for job, sources say that former Pistons assistant Mike Woodson is still the closest thing to a favorite, thanks largely to Woodson’s good working relationship with Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars and the fact that Detroit would know exactly what it’s getting after Woodson’s work under Larry Brown during the Pistons’ 2004 title run.

Yet sources say that one reason Detroit’s search has dragged out so long is the strong impression that Lawrence Frank made on new Pistons owner Tom Gores and his advisers, among them former New York Knicks executive Dave Checketts.

Detroit’s choice, then, appears to be a tossup between the unattached Woodson and Frank, who remains part of Doc Rivers’ staff in Boston.

The other three known candidates to get interviews are Kelvin Sampson (about to leave Milwaukee to become Kevin McHale’s lead assistant in Houston), Pistons legend Bill Laimbeer (last seen on Rambis’ staff in Minnesota) and Checketts favorite Patrick Ewing (from Stan Van Gundy’s staff in Orlando). But sources have maintained throughout the process that Detroit’s preference is to hire a coach with previous head-coaching experience in the NBA after the recent unsuccessful stints for first-time head coaches Kuester and Michael Curry.

When Tom Thibodeau was still a coaching free agent, I knew he deserved a head job. I watched Boston’s defense every night, and that was enough to know Thibs would succeed elsewhere. With Frank, I’m not quite as confident. What did he do in Boston? He coached a defense with Thibodeau’s principles. He screamed his head off. He lathered on sun screen to keep from sun burn, even in the winter. What did he do when he was head coach in New Jersey? He won games with talent, lost games without it. Three seasons above .500, three seasons below .500 and one season at 41-41. He won his first 13 games in New Jersey and lost his final 16. Nothing to keep him from getting another job. But nothing that shouts, “This guy’s a perfect head coaching candidate!”, either.

Perhaps Frank will succeed elsewhere. He obviously has quite a reputation—hell, he has interviewed for almost every opening this summer. But I don’t have the same confidence in Frank that I did with Thibs. Frank just isn’t as sure of a home run—even if he’s born on my mother’s birthday, one hell of a day.

The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

He doesn't look so bad, does he?

Chris Gasper, Boston Globe – “Essentially, what the Celtics have been presented is a do-over of the 2009 playoffs, but with Garnett a go and Cleveland standing in for Orlando. The team is virtually identical because the additions of Rasheed Wallace, Marquis Daniels, and Nate Robinson have had no impact. Last year, the Celtics were ousted in the second round by Orlando in seven games. If that happens at the hands of Cleveland this year, then their run has run its course, and they’re the 1991 Detroit Pistons, who coincidentally went 50-32, to LeBron’s Michael Jordan. We were hard on the Celtics because we expected so much of them, but now they’re in a position to finally fulfill those expectations. Bring on LeBron.”

Bill Livingston, Cleveland Plain Dealer – “Hopes will have to wait that the Big Shillelagh will immediately break out the whuppin’ stick on the Boston Celtics, who begin their second-round series with the Cavs Saturday night at The Q. It was Celtic reserve Glen “Big Baby” Davis whose perfectly legal play on the ball led to Shaq’s torn thumb ligament — and whose tugging on the thumb afterward was both repulsive and typical of the Celtics. After the Bulls had been sent to their rooms, O’Neal fielded questions about Davis’ play with blandness. The two do share a background of playing for LSU, but old college ties mean nothing now. ‘Nothing bothers me,’ said the Big Serenity. ‘I don’t think [that the play was dirty]. I’m just glad I got my thumbs back. You need your thumbs. Your thumbs are very, very important.’”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “Jamison averaged 19.3 points in Cleveland’s five-game first-round series against the Bulls, and he took nearly a third of his shots from 3-point range (7 of 23). He was spelled by Varejao, the sixth-year power forward who plays as if he’s never heard of inertia, making a living off hustle plays and feasting on the Celtics during the regular season by being quicker to get to open spots on the floor. It’s a matchup problem for the Celtics’ big men, who will have to flip the switch from guarding the post to jumping out to the perimeter, chasing Cleveland’s pseudo-bigs. Glen Davis put it this way: ‘Imagine if you had to bump Shaq [coming off a pick-and-roll] and then close out on Antawn Jamison when he just hit two in a row. Or with Rashard Lewis, you’ve got to bump Dwight [Howard] and get out to Rashard and force him left instead of right. You’re closing out to him and he can make you do anything he wants to, really. You’ve just got to have a feel for the game and just got to have a will to do a lot of things out there on guys like that.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “There is the Davis who made all of the hustle plays Tuesday night, from drawing two huge second-half charges on Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem to grabbing most of the big rebounds down the stretch. And then there’s the young player who is still a little too intoxicated by the memory of his game-winning 20-footer in last May’s Game 4 in Orlando. That’s the player who doesn’t always make the extra pass. But he seems to be coming around. ‘He’s just got to stay there,’ coach Doc Rivers said. ‘We tell all of our players this: ‘You don’t need a parade out there every game. You’ve just got to continue to play. And then your body will work when it’s all said and done. Then you can have the festivities.’ And that’s Baby in a nutshell. He is so talented, and his IQ is ridiculous. It really is. But he lets up at times. He starts thinking about what he’s done well, instead of just keep playing. And he’s a young kid still. That’s the maturity part that is growing. And I think it’s getting better and better. He has proven over the long haul, though, that in big games he tends to play well. He did it in college and he’s done it here.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “‘I’ve maintained that I like this team,’ Rivers said. ‘You know, when we were struggling, no one wanted to hear that. I got that. I understood that, but I knew what I had, and I knew that my goal was to get them healthy. And if that meant . . . you know, I didn’t want to lose games, but you had to take that risk during the regular season. We had to choose health over anything, and I understood that. The first thing Erik (Spoelstra, the Miami coach) said was, ‘Boy, you had a hell of a fight trying to keep these guys healthy.’ And I said, ‘It was brutal.’ But it was the right move. It was. I mean, you had to. That’s our only chance. So now we’re healthy, we’re rested and we’re ready.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “”You definitely had your doubts at times because of the inconsistent play, injuries just seem to be mounting and mounting,” said Pierce, who was sidelined for 11 games this season. But he’s not griping. In fact, he embraces those times as moments that showcased this team’s character and resiliency. ‘The losing teams tend to point the finger, go to the media, says this guy need to do this better or do that better,’ Pierce said. ‘And we never held grudges with one another.’ Kevin Garnett also addressed some of the struggles Boston has endured this season, and it’s impact on the team moving forward. ‘If you want something to happen, you have to gather everybody and it’s a group effort,’ Garnett said. ‘But if you want something to work, you have to actually grab everybody, get everybody on the same page and work towards that goal.’”

Paul Flannery, WEEI – “The Cleveland Cavaliers have the best record in the NBA and the best player in the world on their roster. Of course this was the exact same scenario for the Cavs last season, and they ultimately lost to Orlando conference finals. General manager Danny Ferry bolstered his team with additions big (Shaquille O’Neal and Antawn Jamison) and small (Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon) and found improvement from within in young forward J.J. Hickson. Noted Celtic killer Anderson Varejao had the best season of his career, Mo Williams continued to shoot over 40 percent from 3-point range, effectively ending the necessity for Daniel Gibson to get playing time, and Delonte West re-emerged as a key third guard. Then, there is LeBron James, who has shattered the best player in the league argument and seems poised to truly rule the world if he can deliver a championship to his hometown team before engaging in the most frenzied free-agent courtship the league has ever known. Ah, but the Celtics have other ideas.”

Jessica Camerato, WEEI – “‘My role since I’ve been here really hasn’t changed. I can just be a little bit more vocal now that I’ve been here for a while,’ Finley explained. ‘I just didn’t want to come here right away and be the loud mouth of the locker room. But now the guys feel a little more comfortable with me. I’m able to pull guys to the side, tell them different situations, especially in these playoff series that are important, not only to them, but to our team. And they’re listening and they’re being receptive, and that’s been good.’ The 37-year-old is happy to share the veteran wisdom he has accumulated over the last 15 years, and the C’s are just as happy to receive it. ‘Mike is big,’ said Ray Allen. ‘Most people don’t realize the things that he’s saying, just his advice, just some of the things that he says coming out of timeouts, coming to the bench. You can always tell he wants to win. Even though he came here later on in the season, he’s invested now in what we’re doing. So he’s always making sure, ‘Look for this, this is what’s going to go down,’ or, ‘Ray, you need to do this,’ or ‘Paul you need to make sure …’ So that’s great coming from the bench and you know that he’s fielding us more information so when we go out there, we’re prepared.’”

Charles F. Gardner, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – “Keep counting ‘em out, all you National Basketball Association experts. These Milwaukee Bucks will just keep fighting to the end. The Atlanta Hawks found that out the hard way on Wednesday night in Game 5 of the teams’ Eastern Conference series, as the Bucks got off the mat to grab a stunning 91-87 victory at Philips Arena. The Bucks have won three straight games against the third-seeded Hawks while taking a 3-2 lead in the first-round series, and Milwaukee can eliminate Atlanta in Game 6, scheduled for Friday night at the Bradley Center. Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova showed his trademark hustle while grabbing offensive rebounds, and Milwaukee went on a dazzling 14-0 run in the final 4 minutes to erase an 82-73 deficit and end the Hawks’ 14-game home winning streak. ‘This is by far the biggest win of the season,’ said Bucks guard John Salmons. ‘We’ve still got business to take care of, so we’ve got to stay with it.’”

Mark Bradley, Atlanta Journal-Constitution – “This was the Falcons blowing the lead against Danny White and Dallas in January 1981. This was Mark Wohlers hanging the slider to Jim Leyritz in October 1996. Only it wasn’t. It was worse. Those opponents were top-class. The Hawks just blew a 13-point lead and probably a playoff series to Milwaukee, which is a No. 6 seed missing its All-Star center. They trail 3-2 in a series they led 2-0. They face elimination on the road, a place they’ve won once in 11 tries over the past three postseasons. Yeah, theoretically they could still pull this out, but how can you win in the Bradley Center when you can’t hold a nine-point lead inside the final four minutes with the series lead on the line? How can you put this colossal choke — I hate that word, but it applies here — behind you? Up nine, and here’s what happened: Josh Smith missed a dunk by hitting the ball on the underside of the backboard; Jamal Crawford short-armed a layup, the first of his five misses down the stretch; the Hawks watched as Ersan Ilyasova grabbed every loose ball and Joe Johnson fouled out on a charge. Nine points up with 3:55 left, the Hawks saw the lead disappear in 116 seconds. I say again: One hundred sixteen seconds. There are no excuses for this game, this series. The team with the better players is the one with one foot out the exit door. The Bucks have two chances to win once. The Hawks are down to their final shot.”

Benjamin Hochman, Denver Post – “Help? Melo got it. Selfish? Not the Nuggets, at least not this night. Game 6? A reality. For one night, all was right with the Nuggets, who played poised and possessed Wednesday during a 116-102 victory over Utah at the Pepsi Center. Overcoming the loss of Nene because of a knee injury, Denver forced Game 6 to be played Friday in Salt Lake City, with the Jazz leading the first-round playoff series 3-2. A source familiar with the situation said the Nuggets are fearful Nene tore the ACL in his left knee. He is scheduled to have an MRI on Thursday.”

J.A. Adande, ESPN – “Not only did Anthony receive the assistance from his teammates he all but Bat-signaled for from the dais last Sunday, he delivered 25 points and 11 rebounds. He managed to involve his teammates without too much dropoff of his own from his 39-point, 11-rebound Game 4. Sure the point total declined, but the number of turnovers also went from nine to one. A team official told Anthony he was as proud of him as he’d ever been after this game. If the Nuggets are going to exit the playoffs, apparently their disappearance won’t be traced back to Anthony. He already double his double-double total from all of last playoffs (anyone else craving In-N-Out Burger after that sentence?). And he’s put up a better resistance to elimination. In Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals against the Lakers last season, in what turned out to be the finale of his breakthrough playoffs, Anthony scored 25 points but shot only 35 percent and grabbed two rebounds.”

Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter.

"Why, Kendrick, this is mighty comfortable don't you think?"

What happens after you contend against a contender? What good does it do to push a team to the brink if you eventually succumb? Can a playoff loss be a springboard to greatness?

Two years ago, the Atlanta Hawks gave the Boston Celtics everything they could handle in a first-round series.  Tempers flared, and play was fierce.  Mike Bibby said the Celtics fans were fair-weather, and had hopped on the bandwagon.  At the time, Kevin Garnett said, “If I was back in my younger days I probably would have said something, but I learned. Let your play do your talking.”  But Garnett never lets his play speak alone, and neither team would during the series.

Al Horford taunted Paul Pierce after a jumper, and Pierce responded with a gang sign — or ‘B’, or whatever symbol he made. Marvin Williams decked Rajon Rondo, and Kevin Garnett leveled Zaza Pachulia.  It was a 1 vs. 8 matchup, but the Hawks played like equals with nothing to lose.  After a 34-point, game seven drubbing sent Atlanta home fishing for the summer, they were dismissed with pride.  They hadn’t won, but they’d proven to themselves they belonged in the postseason and, to a young team searching for an identity, that was almost as important as advancing to the second round.

Two years later, the Hawks are looking for more.  Sick of early-round exits, they are now borderline title contenders.  Not quite favorites, or even in the select group of two or three favorites, but in the conversation.

And they own the Celtics.  Though the C’s — by way of the miracle that is the NBA division rule — still hold the tiebreaker between the two teams, the Hawks swept them four games during the regular season.  Young, brash, and athletic, just like they were two seasons ago, the Hawks have finally added the next piece to the puzzle — experience.

“(Losing to Boston in 2008) put us right in the position where we are today,” Hawks coach Mike Woodson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday. “When we lost Game 7, after learning how to play playoff basketball, it left a sick feeling in all of our stomachs that summer because we knew that we pushed the best team in basketball to the max, but we just couldn’t get it done. Then, coming back into last season, these guys were hungry. Once you taste it, you don’t want to go the other way. (Since then) we’ve been playing basketball looking ahead and that’s how you build your team.”

So Boston created the monster that now preys on the C’s old, aging blood.  Terrific news.  That tough 2008 series wasn’t only a confidence booster.  It screamed to the NBA with a megaphone, “HAWKS HAVE NEXT!”

“The fans of Atlanta weren’t really following us (in 2008) and then it was, ‘Hey, this team might have some potential,’ ” said Zaza Pachulia. “Since that time we’ve been going forward and forward. This team is still going up.”

After playing the Celtics, the Hawks hadn’t arrived yet but there could be no questioning they were on the rise.  And they loved their first taste of playoff basketball.

“There’s a different intensity (in the playoffs),” said Pachulia. “There’s harder fouls, which is so much fun. I like it because it’s like real basketball. During the season you play one game and move on. But in the playoffs, one possession might beat you and send you to vacation. It’s so much fun that you want to stay there. So you make sure you do everything the right way.”

But the Hawks still haven’t done everything the right way.  Not yet.  They have become a team to reckon with, but still haven’t beaten an elite team in the postseason. The 2008 loss to the Celtics was followed by last season’s sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers, leaving the Hawks with still more to prove.    With Jamal Crawford joining the same nucleus Boston saw two seasons ago, this could be the year they take the next step.

“You’ve got to get in (the playoffs) first,” said Woodson. “Then anything is possible.”

But there’s one caveat.

“The experience we get, we’ve got to use it,” said Pachulia.

And use it at the right time.  Playoff time.

The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

Healthy and against rest.

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “Paul Pierce also wants to keep playing. ‘He hasn’t talked to me about that,’ Pierce said of Rivers. ‘I don’t really think it’s going to benefit me or the team. It’s not like we have a position locked up. So these games mean something, and I’m trying to keep a rhythm going.’ But Rivers clearly was thinking about the mail-in debacle against the Wizards when he said of Celts wanting to play, ‘I don’t mind that with all of them, as long as you do it hard. We say we want to play, but we’ve got to do it hard. If you’re not doing it hard or I don’t feel like you’re doing it hard, I’m choosing rest. I don’t worry much about Ray (Allen), because Ray plays the way he plays. Paul we may (sit) one of the games. We’re not even sure about (tonight). It’s 50-50 whether he plays.’ As for Garnett, Rivers said, ‘I don’t know if he goes the last two. He’ll most likely go (tonight).’”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “‘We made it through a tough season, and at this point I think everybody’s pretty much healthy,’ Pierce said. ‘Hopefully, they can stay that way over the next couple of games going into the playoffs and we’ll see what happens. We had our share of injuries. Guys missed significant amounts of games. But at this point, I think it’s great that guys have fresh bodies going into the playoffs. Some teams are battling injuries going into the playoffs. We got ours out of the way, I guess.’ Rivers was strict about allotting minutes, allowing no one to play more than Rondo’s 36.6 a night and limiting Garnett to 29.9. ‘You can’t plan for injuries,’ Rivers said. ‘Injuries happen, and there’s no control over it. You can play a guy for 30 seconds and he can get injured. That’s just life in sports. Minutes you can control. Rest you can control. Rhythm you can control. I just focus on the things I can control. The other stuff, you can’t control.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “Injuries have prevented Pierce from getting into the kind of steady flow offensively he’s used to. That has been one of the main reasons Rivers has been reluctant to sit him out when healthy. But that’s where hard practices like Monday come into play. ‘That’s why we go hard in practice,’ said Rivers, who added that he’s not worried about limiting the minutes played by Ray Allen. ‘The only way if you’re going to sit a guy or rest a guy more in games, the only way he’s going to get his rhythm is by going longer or harder in practice.’ Regardless of what Rivers decides to do, there are going to be those who will question the decision. ‘I don’t even know what’s the right answer for any of that,’ Rivers said. ‘Nobody does. But I do know if you practice at game speed, it gives you a better chance (of keeping your rhythm).’”

Zach Lowe, Celtics Hub – “Both games were dicey late but ended as expected tonight: Atlanta beat Milwaukee on the road and the Heat squeaked past Philly. [...] The Celtics aren’t locked into a first-round series with Miami, but it’s getting close. There are only two scenarios I can see in which the C’s would face the Bucks in the first round. Both are unlikely…”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “With the Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks rounding out the schedule, [Paul Pierce] said there’s still something to play for. His intentions are to a) win and b) get into as much of a rhythm as possible with the season winding down. Two games against two playoff teams seems like both the perfect test and tuneup. ‘These games really mean something pretty much for everybody, for us too,’ Pierce said. ‘We’re trying to win, we’re trying to move up. You want to get as high a seed as possible because you never know what could happen as far as upsets or home-court advantage in a certain round. We’re trying to move up too, and every game is important to us and also for the other two teams.’”

Charles F. Gardner, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – “Salmons said he wasn’t worried about consecutive defeats to the Celtics and Hawks, even though the Bucks know they will be facing one of them when the postseason opens. ‘The regular season doesn’t have anything to do with the playoffs,’ Salmons said. ‘Whoever we play, it’s going to be a tough series and we’re up to the challenge.’”

Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter.

The Celtics have gotten rid of their morning walkthrough, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Here are a few Celtics links, and maybe even an NBA link or two, to help wake you up and get you focused for the day.

Doc Rivers wasn't too happy last night with the officials.

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “If there is a more challenging foil in this league than the Hawks, the Celtics haven’t played it yet. And still their confidence runs amok. ‘We still feel we’re the better team’ said an exhausted Paul Pierce, who like the rest of a closing unit that included Glen Davis, Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen and Kendrick Perkins, played the last 19 minutes without a substitution by associate coach Tom Thibodeau, who took over for Rivers. ‘The year we won the (2008) championship, we lost four times to Washington. It definitely bothered us, but we’re a better team, and it will show’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “Atlanta tied the game before the end of the quarter, then pulled ahead in the fourth, making Rivers’ tantrum sting that much more. ‘I told the guys after the game, No. 1, that’s always on me,’ said Rivers. ‘I don’t think I should ever get thrown out. I don’t know when the last time I was thrown out was, actually. I don’t care how bad you think the calls are at the moment, you know, somehow you have to try to rein yourself back in. Honestly, I reacted — I was so shocked at what they were calling. I thought they were talking about whether it was a breakaway or not. The last thing I had in my mind was a flagrant. I didn’t even think that was part of the discussion. So I was so surprised by that I reacted, and I never should have.’”

Steve Bulpett, Boston Herald – “A livid Rivers was called for two techs, and when Hill made a comment (not an abusive one, according to those close by), he got one, as well. With three tech free throws, plus two for the foul and possession of the ball, the Hawks could have done some major damage. But after Jamal Crawford made the three technical free throws, Williams hit 1-of-2 from the line and Kendrick Perkins blocked a Crawford drive. The damage had already been done to the flow, however, according to the Celts. ‘Well I don’t know, the game is full of momentum changes and throughout the course of the game that’s what happens,’ captain Paul Pierce said. ‘I mean, we gave them momentum when we were up (10) and then we got the technical fouls and you know they cut the lead basically in half with the free throws, and it becomes a dogfight after that.’”

Chris Forsberg, ESPNBoston – “After Rivers was ejected in the third quarter, the Celtics didn’t utilize a single sub over the final 19 minutes of the game, even as the Hawks rallied ahead. ‘I think with me getting thrown out, it kind of left our staff — it happened so quick,’ said Rivers. ‘It’s almost like Rasheed. So leaving the guys in that were playing well was probably the safe bet. I don’t know.’”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “That’s pretty much the turning point of this game,’’ said Allen. “Being up 10, we were playing well. You figure three techs and then the flagrant and then the ball back. That’s close to tying the ballgame back up and the momentum swings in their favor.’ Davis, who scored 13 points off the bench for a team that has been shorthanded for weeks, appreciated Rivers’s support. ‘Doc felt it was a bad call and he expressed himself,’ Davis said. ‘He watched out for his players. I’m all with him. I’m not mad at what Doc’s decision was. I just feel like it was a tough call and emotions flare.’”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “And if the Garden faithful didn’t know enough about Joe Johnson, they got their fill last night. He was simply brilliant in the fourth, scoring 12 points, including a back-breaking 3-point counter to Allen’s trey that gave Atlanta a 92-91 lead with 4:25 left. Johnson, who finished with 36, is a quiet assassin. The former Celtic – can you believe he was traded to Phoenix for Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers? – is one of the league’s best pure scorers and shows no emotion when he snuffs the confidence of opposing defenses. The Hawks are a young team and Johnson is only 28, but he has a veteran savvy that teammates pick up on.”

Ken Sugiura, Atlanta Journal-Constitution – “‘This team has grown,’ Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. ‘I don’t care how you cut it. We don’t have to be considered as one of the elite teams, but we’re a good team in the NBA that’s fighting for something.’ This was the Hawks’ third win over Boston in as many tries and their second in four days. After getting swept by the Celtics (26-10) in the past two seasons, the Hawks (24-13) have a chance to go 4-0 against them Jan. 29 at Philips Arena. The last time the Hawks swept a four-game season series from Boston was the 1995-96 season. It was a considerable departure from the Hawks’ 113-81 surrender to Orlando on Saturday.”

Brendan Jackson, CelticsHub – “When I drew the dubious task of recapping tonight’s Hawks game, certain thoughts came to mind.  Am I going to be recapping another awful loss typified by overall terrible play by the Celtics?  Am I going to waste my words telling a bunch of Celtics fans how much the Jamal Crawford acquisition means for this potential playoff matchup?  Am I going to be swallowing my pride, putting my allegiance to Celtics fandom aside and say the Hawks have the Celtics’ number? I can thankfully say that I won’t be doing any of those things. Never did I think I would be breaking down just how Brian Scalabrine had Josh Smith lock down.  And never did I think I would be explaining how, for a good chunk of the third quarter, I was mentally imploring the Garden crowd to raise their voices in a collective ‘Don-Na-Ghy! Don-Na-Ghy!’”

Have a link I might want to look at? Send it my way by email (jayking@celticstown.com) or Twitter.