The Boston Celtics defeated the Atlanta Hawks 128-120 in Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference first-round playoffs at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, winning the series 4-2 and advancing to the East semifinals.

The Celtics seemingly learnt their lesson from their Game 5 loss, during which they blew a 10-point lead in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. They still trailed by three points (113-110) at 6:24 in the fourth quarter on Thursday, but then rallied with a 16-6 run in the following five minutes to seal the deal.

Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford and Marchs Smart each drained a triple during those five minutes. Tatum, Brown and Robert Williams III also delivered three blocks against the opponents' top three players, Trae Young, Dejounte Murray and John Collins.

The Celtics were already sitting on a six-point lead (126-120) with only 19 seconds left, but still spared no efforts in guarding a throw-in of the Hawks, forcing them to do it three times before committing a turnover with the fourth attempt.

It has never been a problem for the Celtics to crack the Hawks' defense since they can send a five-out lineup to space the floor and have at least four players who can punish their matchups via isolation. They suffered two losses in this series mainly because they erred defensively on occasions and allowed the opponents to heat up quickly at the wrong timing.

Young was superb in the first half of Thursday's game, scoring 25 points, including 18 in the first quarter. Despite that, coach Joe Mazzulla didn't change his defensive policy of having Horford and Williams III drop back in guarding Young, but made Smart invest more efforts in denying Young the ball from the third quarter. As the game entered the final six minutes, they also trapped Young when he had the ball next to the boundary line.

As a result, Young shot 1-for-13 to get only five points in the second half and missed all seven of his field goals in the fourth quarter. De'Andre Hunter, Murray and Collins all made key contributions to keeping the competition close during the final two periods, but were outperformed by the opponents individually in a series of decisive possessions at the end of the fourth quarter.

The Celtics will face the Philadelphia 76ers in the East semifinals that will begin with Game 1 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 1.