BOSTON-The Hawks are moving on.
And leaving some long-standing failures in Boston behind.
The Hawks advanced to the second-round of the Eastern Conference playoffs with a dominant 104-92 victory over the Celtics Thursday night at TD Garden. The Hawks won the best-of-seven series 4-2 and will face the Cavaliers on Monday in Cleveland.
The victory marks the first for the Hawks over the Celtics since moving to Atlanta, ending an 0-for-7 streak of postseason failures. It was also only the Hawks' second series win in 11 tries over the Celtics in franchise history. The only other coming in 1958 when they won the NBA Championship in St. Louis.
There is more.
The Hawks snapped a 10-game postseason losing streak in the city of Boston, dating back to May 18, 1988.
The Hawks led by as many as 28 points in the series-clinching victory. It came with another balanced scoring effort. Six players finished in double figures: Paul Millsap (17 points), Al Horford (15), Kent Bazemore (15), Kyle Korver (14), Dennis Schroder (12) and Jeff Teague (11).
The Hawks opened a commanding lead with a 20-8 run to start the third quarter. It gave them a 20-point lead at 61-41. The Hawks would lead by as many as 22 points in the quarter as Horford scored 11 third-quarter points.
They were not done.
The Hawks opened with a 14-2 run in the fourth quarter to take a 28-point lead at 89-61. Game over.
Series over.
"I think it's fair to say that anytime you are trying to close out a team that it's the most difficult game," Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said before the game. "There is a desperation that they will have, that you have to match. Our players have been in this situation before and hopefully can find a way to get it done."
The Celtics rallied in the fourth quarter to get as close as 10 points with under two minutes to play on a 25-7 run. Isaiah Thomas led the Celtics with a game-high 25 points, 16 coming in the second half.
The Hawks took advantage of some dreadful shooting by the Celtics and led 41-33 at halftime. The Celtics shot just 27.7 percent (13 of 47) while the Hawks shot 42.5 percent (17 of 40) through the first two quarters.
The Hawks led by as many as 13 points in the first half after starting the second quarter on a 14-4 run. Paul Millsap led the Hawks with eight first-half points and Tim Hardaway Jr. played 12 minutes and had seven points. The Hawks bottled up Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas, limiting him to nine first-half points, including four straight points to end the second quarter.
"I feel like we have been engaged the whole series as a group," Horford said before the game. "Even the games that we've played here, we played well. They just played better than us."