The Celts’ Paul Pierce, center, snares a loose ball before the Hawks’ Marvin Williams can get to it during the first half last night. Trailing the play at left is Boston’s Leon Powe.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

ATLANTA — A few hours before last night’s Game Three playoff game against the Celtics, Atlanta Hawk rookie Al Horford watched old footage of the famous Muhammad Ali-George Foreman title fight in Zaire.

As the starting lineups were being introduced last night at Philips Arena, the underdog theme was pushed on the hometown fans in a video that stated “the best team doesn’t always win” and “imagine if there were never any upsets?”

The Hawks then proceeded to pull off a convincing, if not shocking, victory by beating the Celtics, 102-93. The win puts a new spin on the series with Boston now leading 2-1 heading into tomorrow night’s Game Four.

The Celtics’ defense played nothing like it did in Boston as the Hawks rolled to 56 first-half points and blew the game open with a dominating third quarter. Those 12 minutes were easily the worst of the series for the Celtics, as not only did the defense continue with the breakdowns it showed in the opening half, but the offense slipped badly as well. The Celts shot 24 percent (5-of-21) and were outscored, 28-18.

The game was tied at 68-all with 6:31 to play when the Hawks caught fire. Horford and Joe Johnson proved to be the chief tormentors as the rookie big man schooled both Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Garnett while Johnson continued making key jumpers. Two 3-pointers by Johnson helped the Hawks open a 82-70 lead late in the quarter, and the Hawks were thrilled to carry an 84-74 lead into the final quarter.

A Josh Smith 3-pointer pushed the lead to 89-74 early in the fourth and the Hawks held off the Celtics the rest of the way.

Several teams around the NBA have bounced back after falling into 0-2 holes in their series. That was the Hawks’ challenge last night.

Coming into the game, they felt they’d played decent defense in the first two games of the series, but finding a spark on offense was clearly the Hawks’ top priority. In Boston, Atlanta rarely shifted its fastbreak into gear and the Celtics did a great job preventing ball movement in the halfcourt game. Addressing both issues was the Hawks’ chief goal last night.

“We have to play our style of basketball, push the ball and get some easy baskets. They haven’t allowed us to do that,” Mike Bibby said before the game. “They’ve been playing tough, help defense and we haven’t hit the shots we usually hit or even been getting good looks.”

With Bibby, Johnson and Smith combining to shoot 29 percent in the first two games, getting those three leading scorers going was critical. That’s exactly what happened in an impressive first quarter last night.

Smith, a springy-legged forward, scored 12 points in the opening 12 minutes. He caught alley-oop passes from Bibby for dunks, scored off the glass and even sank a 3-pointer. With the game tied at 20-20, Smith’s trey began a 9-0 Atlanta run that was followed by three straight hoops where Hawk players got to the rim much too easily.

Trailing, 29-20, the Celtics regrouped a bit to finish off the quarter. Sam Cassell’s 20-footer to beat the shot clock and four free throws by Pierce cut Boston’s deficit to 32-26 at the quarter. The Hawks shot 48 percent in the quarter and hurt the Celtics off the boards (11-8 overall, including four offensive rebounds).

The Celtics closed to within four points early in the second quarter but the Hawks put together another push that again showed cracks in Boston’s defense. Johnson swished back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 42-33 and Atlanta still led by nine (44-35) with just inside six minutes to play in the quarter. That’s when the Celtics’ defense finally began to stiffen.

Ray Allen, who had 13 points in the quarter, swished a deep 3-pointer that began a 15-6 run that tied the game at 50. Rajon Rondo’s defense on the ball and some stout defense inside by Garnett and Perkins slowed Atlanta’s romps to the basket.

A 3-pointer by Bibby, his only basket of the first half, put Atlanta ahead again, but the Celtics saw two Garnett free throws, another Rondo-to-Allen hookup for a dunk and an Allen steal and outlet pass to Garnett for a dunk gave the Celtics a 56-54 lead with 20 seconds left. Atlanta’s Marvin Williams made it 56-56 on a layup with 1.8 seconds left but the Celtics’ late push in the second quarter clearly dimmed the Hawk’s outlook at the half. Hawks

102

Celtics

93

Next Game

Tomorrow

vs. Atlanta

8 p.m.

kmcnamar@projo.com