Hawks draw inspiration from the greatest

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By Marc Spears

Special to ESPN.com

ATLANTA -- Comparing it to "The Rumble in the Jungle" would be laughable. But with Muhammad Ali as part of their motivation Saturday night, the underdog Atlanta Hawks knocked the heralded Boston Celtics to the floor for the first time in these playoffs.

At Saturday morning's shootaround, Al Horford played a highlight DVD of Ali's "Rumble in the Jungle" upset victory over George Foreman in Zaire on Oct. 30, 1974. Horford had previous success with the DVD at Florida during his freshman year as he and his teammates once watched the fight before beating Kentucky.

It worked for the eight-seed Hawks, too, as they slugged the top-seed Celtics 102-93 at a sold-out Philips Arena on Saturday night in Game 3 of a first-round Eastern Conference playoff series. Boston now owns a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series with Game 4 here Monday night.

"I went to Lido Theater in Chicago to watch that fight with my dad," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "No one thought Ali was going to win that fight, obviously. I'm sure that was the reference there [for the Hawks]."

No one outside of the Hawks and only their most devout fans probably thought they could win a round in this fight with Boston either. The Hawks have the youngest team in the NBA playoffs and entered it with the least amount of wins in the regular-season (37) of any postseason team. The Celtics also were 3-0 against the Hawks in the regular season and beat them soundly in the first two games of this playoff series in Boston.

So unless Dominique Wilkins was going to come back and play like his old "Human Highlight" self, the odds definitely weren't in Atlanta's favor against the hottest team in the NBA this season. This contest was the first NBA playoff game in Atlanta since 1999. Even so, Game 3 didn't sell out until Saturday afternoon.

"Those two games in Boston were blowout games, and I'm sure the Celtics thought the series was over," said Hawks forward Josh Smith, who had 27 points and nine rebounds.

Horford wasn't the only one trying to give Atlanta the "Win one for the Gipper" motivation. The Hawks' game operations crew played an impressive and motivational video montage during pregame introductions that included historical upsets in sports. One of the upset clips included the Patriots' Super Bowl loss to the Giants. The crowd also included several celebrities like former mayor Andrew Young, hip-hop stars Jermaine Dupri, T.I. and Young Jeezy, basketball great Cynthia Cooper, ex-Hawks star Glenn Robinson and several NBA players on vacation like ex-Hawk Al Harrington.

"We came in down 0-2, but we knew when we came back home we are pretty good here," Hawks guard Joe Johnson, who scored 23 points, said. "And when we came out of the tunnel, it got our adrenaline rushing. I have not seen the crowd that electric since I've been here."

Said Smith: "My heart was racing and I was so excited, especially when we came out and saw so many Hawks fans out there."

While much has been made about the Celtics' All-Star trio of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, their unselfishness and team basketball has also played a major role in their championship caliber success. But on this night, the young Hawks caused Boston to play uncharacteristically selfish on both ends of the floor.

The Celtics shot only 44.4 percent from the field and missed 11 of 17 3-point attempts. While Garnett scored 32, Allen and Pierce combined for 10-of-27 shooting. The Hawks also surpassed the 100-point mark for the first time in the series and outscored Boston 28-18 in the third quarter.

"We didn't help each other on offense and we didn't help each other on defense," Allen said. "We still had plays, we made plays. But just the typical Celtic basketball that we played all year, we always helped each other on both ends of the floor. Tonight, we didn't do a great job of it."

Even with the win, the odds are still heavy in the mighty Celtics' favor to win this series. It's unfathomable to think that usually extremely focused and unselfish Boston would play this poorly two games in row.

With Saturday's win also comes new pressure that these young Hawks haven't dealt with before. With a win in Game 4, their dreams of shaking up the world like Ali are still alive. With a loss, they are one uppercut away from a knockout with Game 5 in Boston on Wednesday. The Hawks are 0-4, including the regular season, at testy TD Banknorth Garden this season. Suddenly, Atlanta now has win-or-probably-say-die pressure Monday.

It will be interesting to see if the Hawks are really ready to rumble Monday because the Celtics are expected to throw a mighty counterpunch.

"Monday's a big game for us, that's just what it is," Garnett said. "Monday's going to be a huge game … [sunday] is a work day to prepare to win this game Monday."

Said Johnson: "We are not satisfied. We have to win on our home court and we look forward to it."