Wizards roll, play Celts next
John Wall scored 42 points, Bradley Beal added 31 and the Washington Wizards withstood a furious comeback to close out the Hawks with a 115-99 victory last night in Atlanta, winning the opening-round playoff series 4-2.
The Hawks fell behind by 22 early in the third quarter before making a game of it down the stretch. But the home team never led, and Wall stymied the rally with huge plays at both ends of the court.
Wall’s block of Dennis Schroder’s layup kept the Hawks from closing within a single point, and Wall hit every big shot in the closing minutes. He scored 19 points in the fourth quarter, ensuring that Washington picked up the first road victory by either team in the series.
The Wizards advanced to face the top-seeded Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Game 1 is tomorrow at the Garden.
The Celtics closed out the Bulls 4-2 with a 105-83 victory in Chicago.
Paul Millsap led the Hawks with 31 points, and Schroder had 26.
After losing three close games in Washington, the Hawks seemed to run out of steam in the return to Philips Arena, ending a disappointing season.
Washington pushed out to a doubledigit lead late in the first quarter, and closed the first half on a 19-4 run to take a 65-46 lead at the break. The Hawks turned the ball over six times during that five-minute stretch, making things easy for the Wizards.
Atlanta finished with 22 turnovers, including seven by Kent Bazemore.
But it was Wall, still seething over a second-round loss to the Hawks two years ago in which he was sidelined with a broken hand, taking control in the final period.
Clippers 98, Jazz 93 — In Salt Lake City, Chris Paul scored 29 points and Los Angeles forced a Game 7 in its firstround series against Utah.
The Clippers will host the only door-die game of the first round tomorrow, with the winner advancing to face the Golden State Warriors.
Los Angeles began to edge away in the third quarter and appeared to be in control when Austin Rivers capped a 9-2 run with a step-back 3-pointer that pushed the lead to 91-77 with 3:58 remaining.
He hit another with 1:29 left to make it 96-86, but Gordon Hayward scored seven straight to bring the Jazz within three before Joe Johnson missed a 3-pointer in the waning seconds.