Going back to Game 3 at TD Garden in Boston, when third-year Hawks guard Dennis Schroder tangled with Celtics star Isaiah Thomas on two occasions, Schroder was elevated to special status: He became the villain. Whenever Schroder touched the ball, he was greeted by a chorus of boos from a fan base that has a long and sparkling history of picking its bad guys, from Wilt Chamberlain to Bill Laimbeer to LeBron James.
But Schroder, a key cog off the Atlanta bench, handled his black-hat turn with spirit. When Thomas went off for 42 points in Game 3 of the Hawks’ opening series win over the Celtics, Schroder — who had suffered an ankle injury in Game 2 — pitched in with 20 points of his own, in 23 minutes.