Atlanta Hawks vs. Boston Celtics preview: Finishing strong

The Atlanta Hawks have one more game to play before heading into All-Star weekend, where four of their five starters will be playing. Tonight, Mike Budenholzer will look to get his third win of the season against the Boston Celtics.

Boston is just 19-31 this season and coming off of a three-point loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

While they are No. 4 in the league in assists per game, they are mediocre or worse in about every other category. 11th in points per game, 13th in rebounds per game and 25th in points allowed per game.

Most eyes will likely be on Jeff Teague, Al Horford, Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver in this one for obvious reasons–people do love All-Stars after all–but DeMarre Carroll has quietly been playing extremely well of late.

He’s coming off of a 26-point performance against the Minnesota Timberwolves, which is a career high, and has scored 16 per game on 53.3 percent shooting in his previous four matchups with the Celtics–for whatever that’s worth.*

Jared Sullinger led the Celtics in scoring in their loss to the Bucks, dropping 17 points on 8-of-13 from the floor. The Celtics will need efforts like that, and increased performances from players across the board though if they want to spoil the upcoming festivities for Atlanta though.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter (@ATLBeatBlog) for more Atlanta Hawks information leading up to the game and check back after the final buzzer for a full recap.

*It’s worth next to nothing.