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Smith was spectacular with 27 points and nine rebounds, and Horford added 17 and 14 on Saturday night as the host Hawks surprised the top-seeded Boston Celtics, 102-93, and got back into their Eastern Conference first-round series.

 After losing the first two games in Boston by a combined 42 points, eighth-seeded Atlanta showed that it was not going to go away so easily.

 In the play-offs for the first time since 1999, the Hawks treated their hometown fans to some of their best basketball of the season.

 "I wanted to give the city of Atlanta something to cheer about," said Smith, a native of Atlanta who made 11 of 17 shots. He drilled three three-pointers and had a handful of soaring dunks that got the Philips Arena crowd into the game.

 Horford scored seven points in the third quarter, when the Hawks limited the Celtics to 18 points and turned a half-time tie into an 84-74 lead.

 Smith scored eight points in the final period, helping snuff out a comeback by Boston.

 On consecutive possessions, he had a swooping one-handed dunk and a deep three-pointer to build the lead to 94-79 with 7:02 left.

 "It gets the crowd going," Smith said. "It gets my teammates going. That's what we needed - easy points."

   The Celtics made one more push, but Horford sealed matters by knocking down a jumper that closed the scoring with 22 seconds left.    After the shot, Horford started shouting and pointing at Boston All-Star Paul Pierce, who returned the words and gestures.

 "This is the play-offs," Horford said. "He better be fired up. He doesn't need me to fire him up."

   The Celtics had held the Hawks to an average of 79 points in the first two games, but their defence was not nearly as good in game three as they allowed Atlanta to shoot 47 per cent (36 of 76) from the field, including 10-of-18 from three-point range.

 In addition, Boston was outworked. The Celtics repeatedly were beaten to loose balls and were out-rebounded, 43-35.

 "From the start, you could just tell they wanted it more," Celtics centre Kendrick Perkins said.

 Joe Johnson scored 23 points, and Mike Bibby added 12 and eight assists for the Hawks, who had 28 assists on 36 baskets.

 Kevin Garnett had 32 points and 10 rebounds, and Pierce added 17 and eight assists for the Celtics, who shot 44 per cent (32 of 72) but got just 11 points from their bench.

 "I thought each guy wanted to win the game by himself," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.

 The Hawks host game four on Monday with a chance to even the series, as unlikely as that sounded a week ago.

 "We're not satisfied," Johnson said. "We have another one to get."

   "They're just not going to lie down for us," Pierce admitted.

 Elsewhere:

   Utah 86, Houston 82

   Deron Williams had 17 points and nine assists and made consecutive driving layups down the stretch as the host Jazz barely held on and opened a 3-1 lead in their Western Conference first-round series.

 Turkey's Mehmet Okur had 14 points and 18 rebounds for fourth- seeded Utah, which almost blew a nine-point lead in the final 80 seconds.

 The Jazz were nursing an 84-82 lead with 7.3 seconds to go when Williams missed two free throws.

 But Okur rebounded the second miss and was fouled, making two from the line to clinch it.

 Superstar Tracy McGrady had 23 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for the Rockets, who nearly nabbed the fourth straight road win of the series.

 But McGrady scored just four points in the fourth quarter and has just 12 final-period points in the series.

 "I thought he'd be a little more aggressive," Williams said.

 Houston hosts game five on Monday.

 LA Lakers 102, Denver 84

   Kobe Bryant scored 22 points to lead a balanced attack and added eight assists and seven rebounds for the top-seeded Lakers, who again toyed with the defenceless Nuggets and opened a 3-0 lead in their West series.

 Spanish star Pau Gasol had 14 points and three blocks for LA, which can advance to the conference semi-finals for the first time since 2004 with a win Monday.

 Superstars Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony combined for 31 points on just 10-of-38 shooting for the host Nuggets, who have been beaten by an average of 15.7 points.

 Orlando 106, Toronto 94

   At Toronto, Jameer Nelson scored 12 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, and Rashard Lewis and Turkey's Hedo Turkoglu added 10 apiece in the decisive final period as the third-seeded Magic grabbed a commanding 3-1 lead in their East series.

 Lewis had 27 points and 13 rebounds, and Dwight Howard had 19 and 16 for Orlando, which can win a play-off series for the first time in 12 years with a home victory Monday.

 Chris Bosh had a play-off career-high 39 points and 15 rebounds for the sixth-seeded Raptors.

By Paul Levine, dpa