There are two different ways to look at the Boston Celtics’ Game 1 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday, and both have their merits.
First, for the glass-half-full crowd: The Celtics played arguably their worst offensive first half of basketball, yet only lost by one point. After scoring just 34 first-half points and trailing by as many as 17 points, Boston displayed courage and resolve by actually taking the lead early in the fourth quarter and fighting until the very last second.
“Hey, we ride this way, right?” head coach Brad Stevens said in a postgame interview aired on CSN New England. “We guard, we grind, we try to find a way. And to (t…