Your first-place Atlanta Hawks

BOSTON - Only by a half-game over Miami, but pretty strange, I bet, for some of you to read. I’m at Logan, waiting for a 7 a.m. flight back home. While I’ve got a few minutes, I figured I’d dump a few more quotes on you and look ahead. The big news is that Chris Paul won’t be in the lineup, out with a sprained ankle sustained Friday against Portland in new coach Jeff Bower’s debut. That obviously tilts the balance a bit in the Hawks’ direction. Some links: Boston Globe story on http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2009/11/14/atlantas_growth_spurt_was_the_biggest_factor/; Boston Herald game story. My http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-hawks/with-huge-rebounding-night-197066.htmlfiled after the print deadline. From the locker rooms at the TD Garden: Kevin Garnett: “They draw one on ones a lot, a lot of isolation basketball. Jamal Crawford and Joe Johnson are two of the best at that. I thought team-wise, they spread us out an...