BOSTON — Just when it looked like the Boston Celtics (29-13) were back on track in blowing out teams with their hot shooting, they were defeated by the Atlanta Hawks (22-19) in overtime, final score 119-115.

Coming off a dominating home win over the Orlando Magic on Friday night, it was a good sign that the Celtics were on their way out of a shooting slump. However, against the Hawks, the Celtics shot 28% from deep, only making 15 out of 52 attempts. So far this month the Celtics have been the worst shooting team in the NBA.

It didn’t look like the the Celtics were going to struggle in the first quarter when they led 33-21. But because of no Kristaps Porzingis (Left PTT Return From Injury Management) or Al Horford (left toe sprain), the Celtics couldn’t protect the paint and allowed 60 points inside. Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu each grabbed 13 boards for the Hawks which showed to be crucial down the stretch. The C’s allowed second chance points, and wasn’t able to get the same amount of touches as they’re accustomed to. When the C’s got cold, the Hawks never allowed any Boston player grab boards.

Towards the end of the game, for a moment it looked like the defending champs would prevail. Jaylen Brown, who led with 24 points and 11 rebonds, his a big mid range baseline jumper to go up two in the final moments of the fourth quarter. However, an ill-advised foul on Trae Young (28 points) put him on the line to force the game to go into extra minutes. From then on the Celtics just ran out of gas and relied on hitting jumpers.

Jayson Tatum finished with 23 points,Derrick White had 21, Payton Pritchard had 20, and Luke Kornet scored 17.

What does this mean?

Though the Hawks still sit at the sixth spot in the eastern conference, the Knicks are only a couple games behind the C’s in third place. The Cleveland Cavaliers are only getting stronger as the season progresses and don’t seem to be dealing with much injuries. Porzingis in and out of the lineup has been hurting the Celtics and disrupting the flow of the team. Al Horford has held the fort down in the beginning of the season in hopes that Porzingis would get back and take care of the rest.

The biggest factor of all of this is the Celtics shooting slump. Every team goes through it in the season and there’s probably another one that’s going to occur in the final half of the regular season. It happens. It’s not time to worry just yet.