Green seeing red

Gerald Green had a career-high 33 points, but that came as no solace to the second-year swingman, who shot 2 for 7 in the fourth quarter, as the Celtics dropped their fourth straight, losing to lottery compatriots the Atlanta Hawks, 104-96 last night.

Green's previous career-high was 25 points, which he had reached twice this season, most recently on April 1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Doc Rivers said the plan was to feature Green tonight.

"We got something out of it. Obviously, we didn't get a win out of it," said Rivers. "We were trying to get something out of Gerald as a go-to guy, just really featuring him. He did some good things. I thought down the stretch of the game he settled for jumpers. The lesson we told him after the game was you get to the foul line, you don't just shoot jumpers."

Green got the message -- but it was too late.

"I made a couple of good moves and good plays and down the stretch I was kind of settling for jumpers," said Green. "Doc was like,'You're too good of a player and too good of a driver to settle for jumpers, just try to get to the hole and get fouled and score the ball.' It was just a learning experience that I have to deal with.

"I'm just tired of losing. Right now it's kind of frustrating for me. Hopefully, we can pull out a victory at home."

About that career-high performance?

"It didn't matter to me. We lost, man," said Green, who didn't have a single turnover. "I know it's the end of the season, but we're still trying to win. I'm a still a ballplayer and at the end of the day I'm still trying to win ballgames, even though I got a career high we still lost the game. I should have had more for us to win the game."

Green did perk up a bit when asked about his friendly duel with Hawks second-year forward Marvin Williams, who had 21 points on 8 of 14 shooting.

"We know each other. We're pretty good friends. We keep in touch. He's a Reebok guy. I'm a Reebok guy. We always kind of compete against each other. He's a good player. He's going to be a great player with the Hawks. I've always been a big fan of his, even through high school. Tonight was kind of a fun day to go against each other."