BOSTON — Jaylen Brown could see the fourth quarter well enough from the Boston bench to know he wasn’t worried about the Boston Celtics’ recent stumbles.
“If we would have played our normal rotation, we would have won that game,” he said Sunday after Coach Brad Stevens rested his starters and watched the subs blow a 13-point, fourth-quarter lead to the Atlanta Hawks. “No doubt about it.”
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Who: Boston Celtics at Washington Wizards
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Television: TNT, NBCSB
Taurean Prince made seven of his eight 3-pointers to score 33 points, getting help from Isaiah Taylor and Dewayne Dedmon down the stretch to help the last-place Hawks beat the playoff-bound Celtics, 112-106.
With the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference already locked up, Stevens left Brown, Al Horford, Jayson Tatum and Terry Rozier on the bench for the fourth quarter, and Boston lost for the third time in four games.
“I think Brad made a good call,” Brown said. “(The backups) got an opportunity and it was well-deserved.”
Rozier had 10 points, nine assists and eight rebounds for Boston, which beat Atlanta in the other three meetings this season. Tatum scored 19, Horford had 16 and Greg Monroe scored 17 for the Celtics, who are without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward for the rest of the season, and Marcus Smart for the start of the playoffs.
“Let young guys play in the fourth,” Stevens said. “Bench play is going to be huge for us going into the playoffs without a full roster.”
Taylor and Dedmon scored nine straight points for the Hawks after they trailed 103-101 with two minutes remaining.
Prince added eight rebounds and five assists, and Damian Lee scored 14 with eight boards. Taylor had 13 points and Dedmon scored 10 for Atlanta, which has beaten playoff teams in consecutive games but still has the worst record in the Eastern Conference.
“(It’s) especially gratifying knowing you have a couple impact players out and still be able to do what we do,” Prince said, alluding to injuries to Dennis Schroder and Kent Bazemore, two of the team’s top three scorers. “It’s good to see what we’re able to do, even without a full team.”
The Celtics took a 20-8 lead in the first quarter and nursed it through most of the game before a four-point possession on a clear-path foul by Tatum, followed by a Prince 3-pointer, helped turn a 73-63 deficit into a one-point game.
The Celtics opened the fourth with a 9-2 run to take a 91-78 lead. But Atlanta made it 99-99 on a four-point play by Mike Muscala with 5:32 to play. After taking a 101-99 lead, the Celtics made five straight trips without scoring before Monroe’s tip-in made it 103-101 with just over two minutes left.
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