What we Learned From Hawks 123-122 Win Over Boston

What a week it has been in Atlanta. 

The Hawks are currently in one of their most impressive stretches of the season and added another win against the Boston Celtics to their resume. After a thrilling 30-point comeback on Monday, Dejounte Murray put the Hawks on his back last night and led the Hawks to another improbable win over the Boston Celtics. 

So what did we learn from last night's win?

1. Boston is a better team on paper, but the Hawks are not afraid of them...

The Celtics are having one of the best regular seasons in NBA history and are the favorites to win the championship. On paper, they are a far better team than the Hawks and would probably handle Atlanta in a playoff series. 

But the Hawks don't seem to care about that at all. 

The Hawks were down seven players in both games this week and aside from the first quarter and a half on Monday, they went toe to toe with Boston and did not back down from the challenge. You can go back to last year's first-round playoff series to see how the Hawks take on the Celtics 

If Atlanta can get through the first two games of the play-in tournament, they will face the Celtics, and while nobody will pick the Hawks to even make it competitive, keep these two games in mind. Atlanta might have Trae Young, Jalen Johnson, and Onyeka Okongwu back for a series and this week showed that Atlanta does not care about the Celtics or their record. 

2. Dejounte Murray had a career night and showed he is one of the most clutch players in the NBA...

You don't hear Dejounte Murray's name thrown around for the NBA's most clutch player, but he has shown this year that he has a case. He has had game-winners vs Orlando, and Miami, and last night, he had his biggest one of the year. While Murray did not have the most efficient night scoring, his ability to take over the game in overtime and hit the game-winner showcased his clutch ability. 

Murray was 18-44 last night for a career-high 44 points and he outscored the Celtics by himself in overtime 11-10. While Young has been out with his injury, Murray has had to take it upon himself to be the main source of offense in a lot of the games just for the Hawks to have a chance to win and he has stepped up in a lot of those games. The Hawks have tough games left to finish the season and Murray may need to have some more big games to help the Hawks go past the Bulls for the No. 9 spot. 

3. The Hawks had a huge advantage in second-chance points...

Sometimes you can point to one stat in a game and know how a team won. For the Hawks, that stat is second-chance points. Atlanta had a 28-11 advantage in second-chance points and the Hawks's ability to get offensive rebounds gave them a big advantage over Boston.