Wiz conduct some magic at home
Washington takes 3-2 lead with another win at friendly Verizon Center
WASHINGTON — Back at home and back in charge, Bradley Beal scored 27 points and John Wall added 20 points and 14 assists, leading the Washington Wizards to a 10399 victory over the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday for a 3-2 lead in their NBA first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.
Dennis Schroder led the Hawks with 29 points, tying a career high with five threes, and added 11 assists.
But after his basket from beyond the arc pulled Atlanta to within two with 70 seconds left, Wall responded with a 21-foot pull-up jumper.
A miss followed from Paul Millsap, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds, but after Wall’s jumper was off the mark, the Hawks seemed to waste too much time at the other end and the buzzer sounded.
The host has won every game in this series so far.
Washington can close out the bestof-seven series by winning Game 6 Friday at Atlanta.
The Wizards won 30 games at home during the regular season, tied for second most in the East, and they have now collected six consecutive first-round home playoff victories.
The crowd filed in on the late side, which perhaps wasn’t all that surprising given that this was an earlier-than-usual 6 p.m. local time tipoff time on a weekday. But they were sent away happy. In a series that has been filled with plenty of physical play, referee whistles and smack talk, including a “crybaby” accusation and a comparison to MMA fighting, there were fouls galore in stretches once again.
Dwight Howard and Millsap both had three fouls at the half.
Then Howard — who finally came to the fore in Game 4 with 16 points and 15 rebounds after a quiet start to the series — exited after picking up his fourth foul with 2 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter.
His fifth arrived on an offensive foul off the ball with 8 1/2 minutes to go.
Washington’s Markieff Morris picked up his fourth foul after 2 1/2 minutes into the third quarter and didn’t return until there were less than six minutes remaining in the fourth.