Watch: Hawks drill gutsy late shot to ice win over Celtics

With 15 seconds left and Atlanta clinging to a one-point lead over Boston, Dejounte Murray missed a jumper. Clint Capela secured the offensive rebound and threw it out to Hunter, who could have held the ball, run time off the clock and forced Boston to foul. Instead, he drilled a 26-footer to give Atlanta a four-point lead with nine seconds to go.

Hunter, a 40 percent shooter from deep this year, made his fourth three-pointer of the contest to ice the game for the Hawks. It's a decision that might have looked terrible if the shot rimmed out, but Hunter's cool, confident release made it look automatic — even if Hawks fans look terrified in the stands.

It was an appropriate heat check, since the rest of the game was so improbable. Instead of injured All-Star Trae Young, Atlanta was starting Vit Krejci, making his ninth start in only his eleventh game for Atlanta. He had made nine three-pointers all season, but knocked down four of them in this game. 

Atlanta also got 17 minutes from 37-year-old Wes Matthews and 19 minutes from little-used Garrison Mathews, and they combined to go 4-for-5 from three-point range.

The Hawks trailed by 30 points with four minutes left in the second quarter, but fought their way back against a Celtics team on a nine-game win streak. At that point, the Hawks were playing with house money. And as they say in boxing, you can't dance with the champ, you've got to knock him out.

Hunter went for the knockout blow and gave Boston their most perplexing loss of the year.