Game 61 Preview: Hawks at Celtics

Paul Pierce and Josh Smith almost swapped uniforms nearly a month ago.
Tonight, the two will do battle once again.

The last time the Celtics played the Hawks, they had Rajon Rondo play 12 minutes with a torn ACL.

Let's hope that doesn't happen again.

The Celtics (33-27) have a chance to move into fifth place in the East with a victory tonight over the Atlanta Hawks (34-36), who currently sit in that very spot.

Atlanta comes into tonight's contest losers of three of its last four games. They will be without Zaza Pachulia and Ivan Johnson due to injury.

The Celtics on the other hand are winners of four straight and are 13-4 since losing their All-Star point guard and a season-high 27-point lead in Atlanta on January 25.

Tonight is the first of two meetings between the Celtics and Hawks in the month of March, which gives the Celtics a tremendous opportunity to gain ground in the conference standings.

Here's a preview:

Projected lineups:

Hawks:
Devin Harris
Jeff Teague
DeShawn Stevenson
Josh Smith
Al Horford

Celtics:
Avery Bradley
Courtney Lee
Paul Pierce
Brandon Bass
Kevin Garnett

Keys to the game:

1. Taking advantage: The Celtics have a great opportunity to climb the ladder in the Eastern Conference, and it starts tonight. For the remainder of the regular season, they essentially control their own destiny, with 11 of their final 22 games coming against teams playing below .400 basketball. They still have Atlanta twice (including tonight), the Knicks twice, the Nets and the Pacers. Doc Rivers has already said he plans to rest Kevin Garnett once or twice more before the regular season ends, and Danny Ainge said yesterday that health and freshness precedes playoff positioning, so the Celtics may ease their foot off the gas in these final 22 games. If they want to move up, it's there for the taking.

2. Taking away advantages: One of Atlanta's strengths is three-point shooting. 27.8% of Atlanta's points come from threes, good for third in the entire league. Over their last three games, the Celtics are limiting their opponents to 22.5% from long range, which is good for second-best in the league. DeShawn Stevenson, Devin Harris and Kyle Korver lead Atlanta's three-point charge. In their last meeting, Korver burned the Celtics for 27 points with all 8 of his field goals coming beyond the arc. Korver leads the NBA in three-point percentage at 46.1%, and the Celtics need to do all they can to not give Korver any room to breathe. Or shoot.