Schadenfriday sure was FUN, wasn’t it?

Hawks fans had a good ol' time watching their revamped team fluster Josh Smith’s Pistons for the second game in a row, with an eye on Joe Johnson’s stumbling Brooklyn Nets at the same time. Now, fans will be pulling for their Hawks to keep the good vibes going tonight at the Highlight Factory against the reeling Boston Celtics (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, CSN New England).

Irish eyes seemed to be smiling on the Celtics, for a minute. Less than a couple weeks ago, sandwiched between a home-and-home sweep of the Magic, Jeff Green plunked a stunning corner fallaway triple to buzzer-beat the Miami HEAT. The following Monday’s win over Orlando gave rookie Head Coach Brad Stevens’ bunch three wins in four nights, evening their record to 4-4 after a 0-4 start and making promising headway in a suddenly weak-looking Atlantic Division.

Then, the bottom fell out.

Now at 4-10, the Celts fly in from Boston tonight on the heels of a second-half trouncing to the East-leading Indiana Pacers last night, outscored 55-32 after coming out of the halftime break up 50-42 and then managing just 8 points in the third quarter. Facing mostly daunting competition, they’ve lost their last six games by an average of 14.5 PPG. They crawl into Atlanta tonight on the verge of dropping seven consecutive games for the first time since January-February 2007, when Doc Rivers was getting side-eyed looks from the Celtics faithful while navigating through 18 straight defeats.

A mere rookie on that 2006-07 team, Rajon Rondo was getting passed over for the likes of Delonte West and Sebastian Telfair. Several world title runs and All-Star Games later, the only holdover from the 2008 NBA champs watches in a suit from the sideline as he recovers from offseason knee surgery. He’s doing contact drills in practice, but has no plans to rush himself back onto the floor.

That leaves the point guard duties, if you want to call it that, to He Whose Name Should Not Be Mentioned (but I’ll mention it anyway). Jordan Crawford would be among the league leaders in assists if he could simply figure out a way to pass the ball to himself.

Situated once again in a perfect position to showcase himself, the former Hawk fan obsession is having a career-year stroking the ball, with 46.7 FG%, 41.2 3FG%, and 93.1 FT% blowing away his brief career numbers. He’s also taking time out of his day to offer up a team-leading 4.4 assists per game and only 2.1 turnovers. Even defensively, He Whose Name is trying his best to play along, with a career-high 1.4 steals per game.

Last night, Crawford carried Boston as far as he could in the first half, dropping a season-high 24 points on Indiana off of 10-for-12 shooting (8-for-8 in the first half, including a 30-foot bankshot halftime buzzer-beater). Alas, his six second-half turnovers eventually did him and the Celtics in, when the Pacers finally ratcheted up the defensive pressure. Crawford will have his hands full with his old teammate Jeff Teague, who as Lang Greene notes averaged 20.8 points and shot 55 percent against the OLD (and, man, do I mean old) Celtics last season (125 offensive rating, highest versus any Eastern team in 2012-13).

The other revelation in Boston’s backcourt comes in the form of Avery Bradley, the young defensive-minded shooting guard who has been laboring to remake his mid-range offense. Bradley ranks 7^th among NBA guards in FG% on at-least 50 mid-range shot attempts (45.7 mid-range FG%). He’s finding his groove on the long 2-pointers from the elbows out, although he remains underwhelming everywhere else on the floor (22.6 3FG%, just 47.0 FG% in the paint).

Bradley is also averaging a career-high 1.4 SPG, but the need to spread his influence across the floor and help his D-ficient teammates keeps him in perpetual foul trouble, having fouled out in each of his first two games this year. He shot just 3-for-10 against Indy last night, but the 6-foot-2 guard helped out his suddenly depleted frontline with a career-high 7 defensive rebounds.

Tonight’s designated Korver Stopper is Jeff Green, also Boston’s leading scorer now that Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett are not-so-distant memories. His 0.4 blocks and 0.4 steals per game are precipitous declines from recent seasons, while his 109 defensive rating is, albeit predictably, his highest as a Celtic. Green has been working his way out of a brief shooting slump, shooting 15-for-27 against the Spurs and Pacers (4-for-5 on threes) after three games shooting a combined 6-for-25 (0-for-10 on threes). But the Celtics will need more than binary-code defensive production out of Green if they are to contend.

Lacking veteran presence, tradebait forward Gerald Wallace has taken it upon himself to be the team spokesperson. Unfortunately, “Crash and Burn” has become the Voice of Derision rather than Reason, and his on-air cussing has cost him some bucks with the league office. This season, Wallace is passing up shots and making those he takes more efficiently, but he could better help his team by doing something about his bleeping free throws (29.4 FT%).

After a way-too-eventful offseason, Jared Sullinger is beginning to get it together at center. Tim Duncan and the Spurs had an easy time on Wednesday with the rest of Sully’s teammates, but could do nothing to keep him off the glass. His career-high 17 rebounds were accompanied by 19 points and came less than a week after piling up a career-high 26 points (plus 8 boards) against the Blazers. Especially with rookie Kelly Olynyk KO’d by a sprained ankle from last night’s game, Sullinger will be relied on even more for buckets and boards, along with All-TMZ star Kris Humphries.

Before Danny Ferry could reach across the Atlantic to pluck Pero Antić, another GM named Danny reached out for Spanish league hoops player Vitor Faverani. Leading the Celtics with 1.8 BPG, it has been hard for Stevens to keep him out of the starting lineup, and with so many underwhelming rookies he’s in the discussion for the All-Rookie Team. He’ll likely be back as a starter with Olynyk out of commission, and any matchups tonight with Gustavo Ayón and/or Antić should be entertaining.

Brandon Bass is shooting 62.5 FG% from 10-14 feet from the rim, as he and guard Courtney Lee are helping the Celts lead the league in FG% from that range on the floor. Bass was helping out with the passing game (career-high 1.8 APG), particularly before the current losing streak. Unfortunately, on defense he’s been playing like Bass Without the B. His recent struggles with the likes of Terrence Williams and Luis Scola don’t bode well for his chances of keeping Paul Millsap and/or Mike Scott in check.

Lou Williams will be available for any needed offensive boosts. John Jenkins (6 points and 5 rebounds last night versus Detroit) has scored more than 10 points only once at Philips Arena (12 versus the Lakers last March) and hasn’t yet seen the Highlight Factory floor this season. Crawford and maybe the lightly-used ATLien MarShon Brooks, who may get some minutes on the second night of a back-to-back, could make some good matchups for Jenkins’ home season debut. Undrafted free agent Phil Pressey has not shot the ball well, but has done a good job passing the ball in short spells, and can be a good opponent for Dennis Schröder.

Go Hawks!

~lw3