Smith leads Hawks past Celtics

Led by high-flying Josh Smith, the Atlanta Hawks finally showed they can beat the Boston Celtics.

Good timing.

Smith scored 27 points – and give him a perfect 10 in his own personal dunking contest – to lead the Hawks to a 102-93 victory Saturday night in Atlanta. The win put some life back into the Hawks’ long-shot playoff hopes by cutting Boston’s lead in the opening-round series to 2-1.

Atlanta earned its first playoff win since May 16, 1999, a Game 5 clincher over the Detroit Pistons. The Hawks were swept by New York in the next round, then spent nine long years trying to get back to the postseason.

After getting blown out twice in Boston, Smith and the Hawks seemed to take out all their frustrations on a 66-win Celtics team that finished 29 games ahead of eighth-seeded Atlanta during the regular season. When the buzzer sounded, streamers fell from the ceiling of Philips Arena as if the home team had just won a championship.

The Hawks, who went 37-45 during the regular season, are still huge underdogs. But for one night at least, Smith had the rim rocking and the sellout crowd of 19,725 on its feet.

Kevin Garnett led Boston with 32 points, but the NBA’s youngest playoff team had him kneeling over, looking totally exhausted, by the end of the game.

Magic 106, Raptors 94: At Toronto, Rashard Lewis had 27 points and 13 rebounds, Dwight Howard added 19 points and 16 boards, and Orlando beat the Raptors to take a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Chris Bosh scored 39 points and added 15 rebounds for Toronto, which faces elimination Monday at Orlando.