Hawks
79

Celtics
101

The Boston Celtics broke out of their offensive slump behind 24 points from Paul Pierce as they blew out the Atlanta Hawks 101-79 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference first round series. The victory gives the Celts' a commanding 3-1 series lead over Atlanta in the best-of-seven affair.

Rajon Rondo (20 points, 16 assists) dazzled the Garden crowd by setting the tone for the scorching Celtics' offense that put up 90 points over the first three quarters. The offensive outburst resulted in the hosts leading by as many as 37 points in the second half, spoiling the returns of Josh Smith (15 points, 13 rebounds) and Al Horford (12 points, five rebounds) to the Atlanta lineup. After shooting just 40.6 percent from the field over the first three games of the series, Boston hit a sensational 63.6 percent of their shots (28-of-44) in the first half, enabling them to build a 24-point lead, helping them to cruise to the easy win.

QUOTABLE: "When I left shootaround [this morning], I probably thought he wasn't going to play. The fact that he could come in and play, and then play the way he played was great. He was just on fire."
 -- Celtics coach Doc Rivers on Pierce overcoming a left knee injury suffered Sunday morning

THE STAT: Boston scored 67 of their 101 points on the night from outside the paint on 28-of-56 shooting.

TURNING POINT: Boston led comfortably for the majority of the second half, but the Hawks put the TD Garden crowd on edge with a 13-0 run towards the end of third quarter, cutting the C's lead to 21 for the time being. Boston's offense crushed the threat and sprung back to life however, thanks to a pair of 3-pointers which jumpstarted an 8-0 outburst for the hosts, and ended any hopes of a historic Atlanta comeback.

QUOTABLE II: "We were beaten in every phase of the game. We did not respond very well to the pressure, to the aggressiveness that they were playing with. I haven't seen that type of performance in our team in quite some time."
 -- Hawks coach Larry Drew

HOT: Pierce -- Boston's captain shook off a left knee injury suffered in Sunday's shootaround to put forth one of the most efficient performances of his career. Pierce made five of his final six shots of the night, and hit a tremendous 10-of-13 attempts overall, including four-of-six from downtown. With 24 points over 18 minutes, the small forward averaged 1.33 points each minute he was in the game.

NOT: Jeff Teague -- After averaging 18.7 points over the first three games of the series, the third-year guard came back down to earth, managing just seven points on 3-of-9 shooting over 27 minutes.

QUOTABLE III: "You don't want to give a team any confidence. You've got to go down to Atlanta with the right mindset. You don't want to bring it back to Boston because anything could happen."
 -- Pierce on Celts' attitude heading into Game 5

QUOTABLE IV: "I felt okay, just excited to be back. It's disappointing for us to come out and lose this way, but the good thing is that we're going back home. It's 3-1 and I'm sure a lot of people are probably writing us off already. We feel pretty good about going back home."
 -- Horford, on his return from injury

INSIDE THE ARENA: Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney cheered on the Celtics from mid-court seats. Bruins winger Milan Lucic attended the game as well at courtside.

GOOD MOVE: Rivers went deeper into his bench Sunday night, giving minutes to Keyon Dooling and Marquis Daniels in the first half after injuries and heavy minutes had affected the starters over the past few games. The decision paid dividends, as the hosts extended their second quarter lead with the second unit on the floor, allowing extra rest for the overworked starting five.

NOTABLE: Smith returned to action after missing Game 3 of the series with a sprained left knee. Despite finishing with a double-double, Smith looked to be in pain on the floor and finished with a team-high six turnovers. ... Horford made an unexpected return to action after missing the last three-plus months with a torn pectoral muscle suffered January 11th against Indiana. "He said he did feel pretty good, and I thoughts he did a good job tonight," Drew said of Horford postgame. ... Pierce told reporters he suffered the knee injury tripping over a teammate tonight, and aggravated the injury in the third quarter tonight. He remains day-to-day. ... Mickael Pietrus sat out the majority of the second half with a hamstring injury. ... Avery Bradley played through a sore left shoulder and finished with seven points. ... Atlanta had eight turnovers in the first quarter. ... After starting the series hitting just 18.4 percent of their 3-point attempts, Boston went 11-of-26 from beyond the arc in Game 4. ... Tracy McGrady played just nine minutes after suffering a sprained ankle in Game 3. He finished with two points.

UP NEXT: Game 5 Boston @ Atlanta will be Tuesday night at 8 p.m. on TNT.