Boston, Washington take crucial Game 5s
Celtics win first game at home against Chicago to take 3-2 advantage Beal, Wall lead Wizards over Hawks
In a series that has confounded playoff wisdom, with each side playing its best basketball in the other’s building, the Boston Celtics finally pulled out the most important game of the series at home.
The Celtics beat Chicago in Game 5 of their first-round series Wednesday night, 108-97, to take a 3-2 lead, with the chance of advancing to the second round with a win in Game 6 Friday night in Chicago.
This time they won despite one of Isaiah Thomas’ worst shooting performances of the series, though he still scored 24 points on 6-for-17 shooting. But this time he had plenty of offensive help, including a 24-point, 11-for19 performance from Avery Bradley, and the ability of Al Horford to tie it all together with 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.
It was a game virtually devoid of runs, until, starting with a Thomas fast break drive, the Celtics broke out with a 20-4 run, erasing an 85-84 Bulls lead and replacing it with a 104-89 C’s edge.
Jimmy Butler never got off the ground, finishing with 14 points. The Bulls forward took only seven shots, though he also had six assists and eight rebounds. Dwyane Wade, reaching back into his rich playoff past, led the Bulls with 26 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
Too often, the Bulls didn’t feature Butler in aggressive offensive sets, and he did not score in the fourth quarter.
Give Isaiah Canaan and Anthony Morrow credit. The latter scored eight second-quarter points in his first meaningful minutes since an April 4 regular-season game. And Canaan, who finished with 13 points, played defensively about as well as one can against the All-Star Thomas, who shot 3-for-11 through three quarters.
“We’ve both got a low center of gravity,” the 6-foot Canaan said. “As quick as he can move, I can move just as quick as him. And I’m just as strong, so it works in my advantage just knowing we play the same position. I try and estimate what move he’s going to do and try and beat him to the spots, make every shot tough.”
That’s exactly why he got the starting nod.
“Well, obviously, Isaiah Thomas was having his way with us,” said Bulls’ coach Fred Hoiberg. “We wanted to put somebody on him that could apply pressure and pick up full-court. We felt comfortable with Dwyane or Jimmy getting us in an offense. But we felt Jimmy is playing so many minutes that we didn’t want to have him chase Thomas around for 48 minutes. Isaiah was our best option to try to slow him down.”
Now the Bulls face an elimination game.
“Talk is cheap, man,” Butler said. “We’ve been doing too much talking all year. You’ve just to go out there and play basketball. It’s the postseason.”