After years of watching the Atlanta Hawks operate within a zone of improbability, you'd think we might be better prepared to see them again best a sure favorite.
Yet here we are, as dumbstruck as the now 0-1 Boston Celtics. Atlanta didn't stumble into a revelation of efficiency or make a crucial late-season addition. They merely played the same illogical brand of basketball that has marked the franchise for the last half-decade, and by way of talent, energy, and flat-out good fortune, they pounced on a Celtics team that wasn't quite ready to begin their playoff run.
