POSEY

WALTHAM, Mass. — While plenty of attention legitimately is showered upon the Celtics’ three leading men, the team’s bench isn’t exactly shabby.

Leading the bench brigade is James Posey, a prototypical energy player who can defend virtually anyone on the floor and is also a dangerous scorer. Leon Powe and Sam Cassell are the other quick picks off of a bench that outscored Atlanta’s, 36-22, in Boston’s 104-81 romp in Game One of a first round series on Sunday night. Game Two is set for tomorrow.

After a light walk-through and some film work yesterday, Posey spoke about his role with the Celtics ever since he signed on as a free agent last summer.

“I’m just doing my role as best I can and it’s all about winning,” said Posey. “It’s not about numbers with me.”

Asked if he’d prefer to hit a big 3-pointer or take an offensive charge, the Xavier graduate smiled and said, “taking a charge.” Posey, who averaged 7.4 points this season, finished eighth in the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year voting that was announced yesterday. San Antonio’s Manu Ginobili was the winner.

“Not a lot of arguments about that, but ‘Pose’ should be higher in that voting,” said Celtics’ coach Doc Rivers. “He just doesn’t do it in a flashy way, he does it in a role-playing way. Unfortunately that’s probably going to hurt all our players in whatever awards that are out there. We are a role-playing basketball team and everybody buys in and they do it unselfishly so their numbers are skewed. But we don’t really care about it.”

Powe (10 points, 4 rebounds) was the first Celtic off the bench in the opening game of the series. He fills in for either Kevin Garnett or Kendrick Perkins and is also asked to sacrifice his body on the defensive end. Powe said he’s happy that his first playoff experience is over with and he can now concentrate on playing better.

“I had to calm myself down,” Powe said. “Sometimes you want to do too much and you go too fast and you don’t want to do that. That’s when you start off on the wrong foot. Once you calm down and relax, I was fine.”

Playoff intensity awed Hawks

The Hawks were still licking their wounds yesterday and clearly have a ways to go to play with a loaded team like the Celtics. While rookie Al Horford (20 points, 10 rebounds) played superbly, the Hawks’ three top scorers — Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Marvin Williams — combined to shoot 12 of 39 (30 percent) in Game One.

“It wasn’t anything special that they did against us. We just didn’t make shots and we didn’t put the heat on them in the second half and drive the ball and make plays at the rim,” said Johnson.

The majority of the Hawks’ players made their playoff debuts on Sunday night and the electric atmosphere clearly bothered several of them. Smith said the Garden “was the loudest [arena] I’ve ever played in,” and remarked that “it was something to remember.”

Around the rim

The Celtics placed a limited number of tickets for tomorrow’s Game Two on sale yesterday. Check Celtics.com for more info. … The Celts will hold a longer workout at Healthpoint today while the Hawks will shoot at the Garden.

kmcnamar@projo.com