The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Boston Celtics 130-122 on Friday night to cut the deficit in the opening-round series to 2-1. Trae Young scored 32 points in his finest game of the playoffs.
With 2:21 remaining, Young made a step-back 3-pointer from the corner, and with 45 seconds left, he made another big basket on a floater in the lane after Jaylen Brown missed a 3-point attempt that would have knotted the game for the Celtics.
On Sunday night at State Farm Arena, Game 4 will pit the seventh-seeded Hawks against the second-seeded Celtics in an attempt to even the series.
Boston, which was hardly contested in the first two games of the series, was led by Jayson Tatum's 29 points.
Young came under fire after only connecting on 14 of his 40 attempts in Beantown. In Game 3, he performed significantly better, connecting on 12 of his 22 tries and dishing up nine assists.
Dejounte Murray scored 25 points for the Hawks, including a 3-pointer with 1:40 left that enabled Atlanta to preserve a slim lead.
The Hawks finally put up a fight, in contrast to the Celtics' first two games in Boston, where they surged out to commanding leads and won by a combined 13 points.
The Hawks took advantage of a weakness in the Boston defence to gain an early advantage while Derrick White was sent to the bench due to two quick fouls. In the first half, Atlanta blocked 30 of 46 shots (65.2%).
With the support of a sold-out crowd, the Hawks built a 14-point lead late in the first half, their largest of the series. The Celtics, on the other hand, answered with eight straight points and entered the locker room behind 74-67.
Atlanta has defeated Boston for the first time this year. All three of the Hawks' regular-season games were lost.