Celtics again can't put finishing touch on win

This one had a little bit of everything. The coach got sick, then came back, then felt worse when the game was over -- and not because of anything Mother Nature or the Flu Fairy handed out.

The Celtics weren't human turnover machines last night. They weren't annihilated on the glass. They weren't playing a superior team. They got Tony Allen for the first time and got a career-high 23 points from Delonte West. They still lost.

The Atlanta Hawks have only eight wins this season, but 25 percent of their haul has come at the expense of Doc Rivers's lads. Last night, before a boisterous gathering of 17,015 at the Garden, the Hawks made the big plays down the stretch and left town with a 103-98 victory. Once again, the Celtics failed to put as many as two wins together as they began a stretch of four games in five days. This one looked to be the most winnable of the bunch.

''Obviously, a home game against Atlanta, you hope you can win," said Rivers, who missed much of the third quarter while getting hydrated in the locker room to combat dizziness (his explanation) or a touch of the flu (the team's explanation). ''But we're not playing well right now. We're up and down and it is frustrating to lose a game like this."

Rivers tried throwing a zone defense at the visitors, who knocked down 11 of 19 3-pointers. The teams traded dunks, blocks, and baskets down to the final minute -- the largest fourth-quarter lead for either team was 5 points -- and it was Joe Johnson who came back to haunt his former team.

With the game knotted at 98, Johnson, who had 20 points, knocked down a tough 17-footer with 72 seconds left. The Celtics, who went scoreless over the final 2:13, missed twice at the other end (a block on Paul Pierce and an in-and-outer from Ricky Davis). Al Harrington (28 points) was unable to convert but Josh Childress came away with the rebound, Atlanta's only offensive rebound of the quarter. That forced the Celtics to foul.

Johnson, a 75 percent free throw shooter, boinged 1 of 2 with 19.2 seconds left, and Rivers called time. By then, the coach had apparently shaken whatever it was that forced him to the locker room in the third quarter.

''I don't know what the hell I have. I almost passed out," Rivers said. ''I'm not sick that I know of. I just got dizzy. I was dizzy in the second quarter and kind of ignored it, which I probably shouldn't have. I probably should have stayed in the locker room because I didn't feel great at all. Then I just started -- I thought that I was going to pass out. I didn't want the distraction, so I got out of there. I'm fine. I mean, I'm not fine because we lost."

He's looked better. But he made a good call out of the timeout, figuring the Hawks would double Davis or Pierce. When the play was run, Davis was swallowed up, but Pierce popped out to the top of the key and the closest Hawk was in Charlestown. But Pierce's potential tying trey was a tad long.

''I got a good look," said Pierce, who had 23 points but was 1 for 6 in the fourth quarter after going 8 for 13 in the first three quarters, including a sidewinding, hope-I-get-fouled 3-point heave to close the third. ''I didn't realize how open I was. I sort of rushed it."

Tyronn Lue, who made three big 3-pointers and helped bring the Hawks back from a 9-point hole in the third quarter, then collected the rebound in a scrum. He called time. He then was fouled, made them both with 12.9 seconds left, and the Celtics, down by 5, had nothing left to offer.

The victory was only the third in 17 road games for the Hawks, but the Celtics are in pretty good company there. The other two Atlanta roadkill victims are Indiana and Cleveland. The Hawks came to town having lost four straight, but having led in the fourth quarter in each of the four games. They're young, like the Celtics, and learning, like the Celtics, and, since they won their first game against the Celtics Nov. 23, the Hawks are 7-13. Over that same stretch, the Celtics are 9-12.

''We just have to learn as a young team how to finish games," said Atlanta coach Mike Woodson.

One way is to shoot 60 percent in the fourth quarter, which is what the Hawks did. Another is to hold the Celtics to 34.8 percent shooting -- and 19 points -- over the same stretch. The Celtics failed to score 100 points for the first time in nine games, or since they were obliterated, 118-86, in Chicago Dec. 17.

''We didn't make the plays and they did," said Pierce. That about sums it up.