Well...that was fun. If anticlimactic.

Pushed to Game Seven by a hungry Atlanta team - or dragged to Game Seven by their sporadic ineptitude, depending on which you believe - the Celtics turned on the gas and utterly annihilated the Hawks yesterday, 99-65, at the Garden. This was in every way what a big game between a 66-win #1 seed and a sub-.500 #8 seed should have looked like.

It was thorough, and it was balanced. KG - 18 points, 11 rebounds, and an utterly soul-satisfying pick on Zaza Pachulia. Perk - 10 points, 10 rebounds. Pierce - 22 points. Rondo - 10 points, 6 assists, and survived the Marvin Williams takedown. Leon Powe, James Posey, PJ Brown - great contributions off the bench. If Ray Allen had been on target, this could have been a 50-point game.

The crowd was up for the challenge. In it from the beginning, they were getting creative towards the end. We expected "Where is Bibby", "MVP" chants for Garnett, and the inevitable singing of "Na na na na, hey hey goodbye". But we also got some "USA" chants directed at Zaza (which we're ordinarily kind of down on, but it fit the general mood of bloodlust in the building), and "MVP" chants on free throws by Pierce and Leon(!).

For the Hawks' part - well, there wasn't a Hawks part. Joe Johnson was the only guy on the visitors worth a damn yesterday. The Celts' D completely took Josh Smith and Al Horford out of the picture, league rules took Marvin Williams out of the picture, and only Johnson and garbage-time-only Salim Stoudamire cracked double figures. Mike Bibby, as far as we know, was stuck at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport all day yesterday.

David Ortiz was given the day off at Fenway; Kevin Youkilis showed Papi he wouldn't be needed, as Youk homered and drove in four runs as the Sox finished the sweep of the first-place Devil Rays, 7-3. Lester got the win, Papelbon got the save, and the Sox suddenly are three games up on the rest of the AL East. They hit Detroit tonight for the first stop on a 10-game road trip.

Photo by Winslow Townson/Associated Press.