NBA: Hawks defeat Celtics 123-122 thanks to a game-winning overtime basket and a career-high 44 points by Dejounte Murray

A career-high 44 points from Dejounte Murray, including the game-winning shot in the last seconds of overtime, helped the Atlanta Hawks defeat the Boston Celtics 123-122 on Thursday night.

In the extra session, Murray scored all 11 points for Atlanta, giving the Hawks their second victory against Boston in as many days.

With six seconds left in overtime, Jaylen Brown made the game-winning shot to give Boston a 122-121 lead. In response, Murray jumped over Jrue Holiday.

With 24 points from Bogdan Bogdanovic and 21 points and 13 rebounds from De’Andre Hunter, Atlanta won its fourth consecutive game to tie its season-long winning streak.

With 13 rebounds and 31 points, Jayson Tatum led Boston. Brown finished with 18 points, while Kristaps Porzingis scored 20.

Before being allowed to participate, Murray’s lower back pain was categorized as doubtful.

The Hawks fell down the Celtics by thirty points on Monday night, but they came back to defeat them 120-118. The largest comeback victory for Atlanta since at least the 1997–1998 season occurred.

Prior to the game on Thursday night, Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said he was not concerned about his players’ reactions to the shocking defeat that ended the Celtics’ nine-game winning run.

“Not really,” Mazzulla said. “They responded right away to how they practiced and appeared yesterday.”

With his club owning the best record in the NBA and having already secured the top seed in the Eastern Conference, Mazzulla had good cause to be optimistic.

The last play-in place in the East is occupied by Atlanta. If the Hawks made it through the play-in tournament, they would probably play the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.

This was the second encounter between the teams in four days, thus no spectacular comeback was required. The largest lead for either side came from Boston’s eight-point cushion in the first quarter, 23–15.

Al Horford, a forward for Boston, missed games due to a sprained big toe.

Onyeka Okongwu, a forward with the Hawks, missed his fourth straight game due to a sprained big toe. The Hawks announced that forward Saddiq Bey, who is already out for the season, had surgery in New York on Wednesday to fix his left knee’s ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.

Forward Jalen Johnson (right ankle) and All-Star point guard Trae Young (finger) have missed eight and seventeen games in a row, respectively. In the second quarter, Young was penalized for a technical foul from his bench against Atlanta after Murray had made a 3-pointer.

At halftime, a Hawks supporter donning a Hunter jersey made a halfcourt shot and won $10,000.