Hawks Blow Out Celtics 93-77

March 15, 1998 / 12:00 AM EST / CBS/AP

Coming off one of their worst games of the season, the Atlanta Hawks made it look easy.

Dikembe Mutombo had 21 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks as the Hawks cruised to a 93-77 victory Sunday over the Boston Celtics.

The win, Atlanta's fifth in six games, came two days after losing 107-86 at Philadelphia to the lowly 76ers the last-place team in the NBA's Atlantic Division.

It was Philadelphia's first win in seven games against Atlanta.

"We lacked enthusiasm in Philadelphia, and it was embarrassing," Atlanta's Steve Smith said of the Hawks second-worst defeat of the season.

The Hawks' worst loss was a 112-88 drubbing at Seattle on Feb. 27.

"Today, we came out with spirit and stuck to our game plan as much as Boston would allow," said Smith, Atlanta's leading scorer at 20.5 points per game.

He scored only five points. He only took five shots, but did have eight rebounds in 34 minutes.

Mutombo scored 10 of his 14 first-half points in the opening quarter, and the Hawks built a 51-34 halftime lead on a 3-pointer by Tyrone Corbin with 17 seconds left.

"Dikembe played awfully well," Smith said. "Boston couldn't stop our three guys on the low block."

Alan Henderson had 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Christian Laettner had nine points to add to Atlanta's inside game. Corbin had 16 points as Atlanta made it to 7-0 on Sundays.

The Hawks opened their lead to 63-40 after 4:56 of the second half on another 3-pointer by Corbin, capping a 12-0 run.

"We're trying awfully hard," said Boston coach Rick Pitino. "It's a little bit like the beginning of the year where we struggled from the field with our percentage."

The Celtics made only 32-of-87 shots (37 percent) from the field.

The Celtics, after scoring the first three baskets of the second half to cut the lead to 51-40, didn't hit another basket for eight minutes when Zan Tabak scored with 1:46 to go. By then, Atlanta led 66-45.

The Celtics, who lost their fourth game in a row, never got closer than 10 points thereafter.

Antoine Walker led Boston with 16 points, and Ron Mercer had 14. Tyus Edney, starting in place of Kenny Anderson, who has a sore left knee, scored 12 points.

"When you get down to a good team like Atlanta, it's hard to come back," Edney said. "We missed easy layups and then they would go down and convert, and that would happen a lot of times. That's just part of the game."

Henderson had 11 points in the opening half, and Mookie Blaylock all 10 of his as the Hawks broke open the game with a 15-2 run to take a 33-17 lead with 6:57 left in the second quarter.

Notes: The Hawks are 20-9 overall at home this season (9-8) at the Georgia Dome and (11-1) at Georgia Tech. ... Alanta's Eldridge Recasner has made 31 free throws in a row including 2-of-2 Sunday and is 48 of 49 for the season. ... Anderson returned to Alexander Memorial Coliseum for the first time since playing at Georgia Tech in 1991. He's listed as day-to-day after playing only nine minutes in Friday night's loss at Detroit.