NBA.com writes: “5) They finally figured out how to win on the road. After failing to do so against Cleveland and Atlanta, Boston managed to pull off two victories in Detroit against one of the best home teams in basketball. 4) Outside of a disappointing Game 2, the C’s stayed strong at home. Boston went undefeated on its homecourt in its first two series and didn’t blink after dropping one at the Garden. 3) After having a rough postseason, Ray Allen finally awoke for big performances in Games 5 and 6. The “Big Threeâ€� was starting to look more like a dynamic duo, but Allen pulled himself together in the final two games of the series, erupting for 29 points in Game 5 and posting 17 on Friday. 2) The Celtics figured out how to disrupt every aspect of Tayshaun Prince’s game. Boston held him to 6.3 points per game over the prior three contests and didn’t stop in Game 6. He struggled, going 3-of-10 from the field on Friday. Even after coming up with a crucial steal in the final minutes, he reverted back to his abnormal form as James Posey came from behind, swiping the ball straight out of his hands and dashing Detroit’s final hopes. The staple of Pistons’ basketball looked anything but against Boston. 1) Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. When you combine the “Truthâ€� with the “Big Ticketâ€� and put them against the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals, you get 44 points per game and a 4-2 series victory.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Sekou Smith) reports: Hawks coach Mike Woodson didn’t realize he’d still be auditioning for his job at this late date. Yet nearly a month after the Hawks’ stunning playoff run ended in a Game 7 defeat in Boston, Woodson and his staff are still in limbo regarding their futures. Contracts expire June 30 and now a new general manager, Rick Sund, who was hired Wednesday to replace Billy Knight, has to evaluate the Hawks’ entire basketball operations staff before rendering decisions on who stays and who goes. Sund repeated Thursday the same thing he said a day earlier, that he’ll “spend the next week and half or so being a good listener and getting a lay of the land” before doing anything.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Sekou Smith) reports: The Hawks have reached an agreement with former Seattle general manager Rick Sund, who will be announced Wednesday afternoon as the team’s new general manager. The hiring of Sund, 56, wraps up a nearly four-week hiring process the Hawks kept under wraps. Sund, a consultant for the Sonics this past year after being reassigned by a new ownership group in April 2007, will take over for Billy Knight, who resigned after six years with the franchise, the last five as general manager.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer (Branson Wright) reports: Assistant general manager Chris Grant will remain with the Cavaliers despite rumors that he was a lock to become the General Manager of the Atlanta Hawks. Grant, according to a source close to the situation, turned down an offer made by the Hawks.

Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford, the runner-up for the 2007-08 T-Mobile Rookie of the Year award, was the only unanimous selection on the 2007-08 T-Mobile NBA All-Rookie Team, the league announced today. Horford received 58 votes, while Seattle’s Kevin Durant, winner of the 2007-08 T-Mobile Rookie of the Year award, received a total of 57 votes.
InsideHoops has to ask: How could a voter not have picked Durant as one of the top five rookies?
Rounding out the NBA All-Rookie First Team are Houston’s Luis Scola (53 points), the Los Angeles Clippers’ Al Thornton (48 points) and Seattle’s Jeff Green (43 points).
The T-Mobile NBA All-Rookie Second Team consists of former D-League player, Jamario Moon of the Toronto Raptors (38), Memphis’ Juan Carlos
Navarro (24), Philadelphia’s Thaddeus Young, (23), Detroit’s Rodney Stuckey (22) and Houston’s Carl Landry (18).
The voting panel consisted of the NBA’s 30 head coaches, who were asked to select five players for the first team and five players for the second team, regardless of position.  Coaches were not permitted to vote for players on their own team. Two points were awarded for first team votes and one for second team votes.

As of July 1, Hawks general manager Billy Knight will be available for hire. He and the club will part ways just as free agent negotiations begin.
For more info, click here.
It’s interesting that, as of now at least, Knight will be gone, but coach Mike Woodson will be there. Still, there’s plenty of time fo the team to part ways with Woodson as well, and I’d guess there’s a 50 percent chance of that happening. Taking the Celtics to seven games in the first round of the playoffs may suggest to the owners that Woodson is worth keeping around. We’ll see.

The NBA has suspended Hawks forward Marvelous Marvin Williams one game for his excessive foul on Celtics guard Rajon Rondo, which took place in the third quarter of their first round Game 7.
For more info, click here.
The Hawks were getting beaten down in a blowout, and Williams decided to introduce Rondo to a big can of Whoop-Ass.
Since Atlanta was eliminated in that game, Williams will miss the first game of next season.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Sekou Smith) reports: Two of their key players, Josh Smith and Josh Childress, are restricted free agents and must be re-signed; the price tag for both could be huge. Hawks coach Mike Woodson and his staff have contracts that end June 30, and Hawks general manager Billy Knight is in a similar situation, with the team holding an option on his contract for next season. “I don’t know what to do with myself, man,” Al Horford said Monday as he walked down a corridor to his car. “I know we lost, but I just don’t know what to do with myself. You’re just done. “Obviously, you know the season is going to end at some point. But in school, you kind of knew what you had going on next. Here you’re done and you’re just … done.” Keeping a nucleus together for next season, and possibly another run to the postseason, is the only thing on the minds of the players.

The New York Times (Ray Glier) reports: For five years, ever since a rebuilding project started with General Manager Billy Knight in 2003, Atlanta Hawks fans have resented failed draft picks (Shelden Williams), the refusal to draft a top-shelf point guard (Chris Paul, Deron Williams), the signing of the swingman Joe Johnson to a five-year, $70 million contract, and the squabbling over finances by a cadre of 10 owners. So when the Hawks were thumped in the first two games of a best-of-seven Eastern Conference series by the Boston Celtics, a collapse of the Hawks’ rebuilding project did not seem far away. Mike Woodson, the coach, was already in jeopardy of losing his job. Given the ease with which the Celtics sliced up the Hawks, it seemed very likely that the roster would be examined closely. But the Hawks have had the last word against the doomsayers. Atlanta suddenly looks like a promising franchise because it has taken the Celtics, who had the N.B.A.’s best record this season, to Game 7 on Sunday in Boston.

The AP reports: Kevin Garnett had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Paul Pierce scored 22 points, and the Celtics turned back the pesky Hawks with a 99-65 victory Sunday in Game 7 of their playoff series to advance to the second round. Next up: LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Game 1 is Tuesday night… The Celtics started the celebration early, holding the Hawks to 10 points in the second quarter and doubling their 18-point halftime lead in the third… Rajon Rondo, who missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer in the Game 6 loss that forced the series back to Boston, had 10 points and six assists, taking his lumps on a key play. Kendrick Perkins had 10 points and 10 rebounds before joining the rest of the starters on the bench in the formality of a fourth quarter, just like the Celtics did for much of the regular season.
InsideHoops.com Stat Notes: The Celtics shot 47.6%, the Hawks a ridiculously awful 29.3%, hitting just 24 of 82 field goal attempts. Boston was off from outside, hitting just 3-of-18, while Atlanta hit 6-of-12. The Celtics got a few more free throws than the Hawks, and hit at a better percentage. Rebounding was even. The Celtics dished more assists.
The Celtics got 22 from Pierce, 18 from Garnett, 12 from Leon Powe, 10 with 6 assists from Rajon Rondo, and 10 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks from Kendrick Perkins.
For the Hawks, Joe Johnson (just 5-of-17) had 16 points and little else. Salim Stoudamire tossed in 10 pointless points. No other Hawks scored more than 8 points. Al Horford, with 8 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks, was Atlanta’s best player today. Josh Smith shot 3-of-11 for 7 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and more turnover than assists. Marvin Williams also shot 3-of-11.