Sports Redux: Buffalo, Atlanta Sweep Boston

Despite a promising 16-7 spurt to open the game, Atlanta's brash brand of confident basketball was too much for the Celtics to handle as the Hawks swept their way to a 100-91 win. Atlanta beat the Green three times in January to secure a season series sweep for the first time since 1998-99. Atlanta took over second place in the Eastern Conference with the win.

Atlanta's tag team of Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford took turns scoring on the Celtics. Crawford (28 points, 6 assists) led the first-half barrage with 18 points including a half-court dagger to end the first quarter with Atlanta up 23-22. It felt like a 10-point shot and a bigger lead. Atlanta built a 53-41 lead at the half thanks to a 30-19 second-quarter rally by the Hawks.

Johnson scored 16 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter to fend off the Celtics, who closed Atlanta's lead to 74-73.

Paul Pierce led all scorers with 35 points. Kevin Garnett added 15 points and seven rebounds. Rasheed Wallace got his 13th technical foul in his 40th game. Boston has lost two straight games and take on the Lakers Sunday.

If you thought a four-day hiatus and the return of Marc Savard would be sufficient to give the Boston Bruins a needed spark and victory, well, not quite. Buffalo stopped the Bruins 2-1 behind 30 saves from Ryan Miller, including 12 saves against an unsuccessful rally in the third period from the Bruins.

Buffalo led 2-0 after one peroid. Savard and Zdeno Chara set up Milan Lucic for the lone Boston goal in the second period.

The Bruins are 0-5-1 in their last six games and 1-8-1 in their last 10 games. The Bruins host the L.A. Kings tonight at 7 p.m. This may not be a good thing, depending on who you ask. Perhaps this is the day the Bruins find their inner Cam Neely again.

Ex-Patriot Asante Samuel took some time away from NFC Pro Bowl practice to support" free agent Vince Wilfork. Samuel said “I don’t think they care about you, in my opinion. They didn’t care about me. So do what’s best for you and your family.” On Wednesday, Wilfork expressed what appeared to be displeasure at becoming the Patriots franchise player, and getting paid about $7 million for one season in 2010, just as Samuel did in 2007.

Bostonist doubts the issue with Samuel had anything to do with his family or the Patriots feelings about them. Same for Vince. Dropping a perfect-season-clinching interception in the Super Bowl might be more of a concern. For Wilfork, there's probably goodwill in the bank from the fans because he delivered on the field. Fans surely want him to stay. If a better offer came along, and he took it, this Bostonist wouldn't hold it against him.

Bryant Gumbel recently wrapped up his HBO show, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, by reading his "open letter" to Mark McGwire which basically says the MLB still doesn't get fans outrage over steroids. Gumbel specifically mentioned Jeff Bagwell, Nomar Garciaparra, and Pudge Rodriguez and "all those others" who saw statistics spike up for no obvious reason. Assailing baseball players in the steroid era is commonplace. Gumbel happened to pick three players who have no positive steroid tests, according to AOL Fanhouse.