Watch: Thomas sinks Hawks with game-winning step-back

Isaiah Thomas continued his unconscionable crunch-time hegemony Friday night, leading his Boston Celtics past the Atlanta Hawks with this nasty stop-on-a-dime pull-up over Kent Bazemore to break a tie with 2.4 seconds to play.

Paul Millsap missed a baseline jumper at the buzzer to end the Hawks' spirited comeback attempt on an emotional night in Atlanta that featured the first return of longtime former Hawk Al Horford.

The game-winner gave Thomas - who leads the NBA in fourth-quarter scoring - 13 points in the final frame, two nights after he dropped 20 in the fourth in a win over the Washington Wizards. He had seven points in the final 80 seconds alone.

The Celtics had led by as many as 16 points in the fourth, but the Hawks kept chipping and chipping away, until Tim Hardaway banked in a three and Millsap followed it up with one of his own to tie things up with 25 seconds left.

All it did, in the end, was pave the way for Thomas' heroics, which lifted the Celtics to their eighth win in 10 games and halted the Hawks' seven-game winning streak.