Beal, Wall lead Wizards past Hawks
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 103-99 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night for a 3-2 lead in their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.
Dennis Schroder led the Hawks with 29 points, making a career high-tying five 3s, and 11 assists. But after his basket from beyond the arc pulled Atlanta within 101-99 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 best-of-seven series and move into the conference semifinals by winning Game 6 at Atlanta on Friday night.
The Wizards won 30 games at home during the regular season, the second-most in the East, and they have now collected six consecutive first-round home playoff games.
The crowd filed in on the late side, which perhaps wasn’t all that surprising given that this was an earlier-thanusual 6 p.m. tipoff time on a weekday. But they were sent away happy.
Isaiah Thomas and Avery Bradley scored 24 points apiece to help the Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls and take a 3-2 lead in their firstround playoff series. After the road team won each of the first four games, the Celtics won at home in Game 5 to earn a chance to eliminate the Bulls on Friday night in Chicago. A Bulls victory would force the series back to Boston for a decisive Game 7 on Sunday. Dwyane Wade had 26 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists for Chicago. But Wade and Robin Lopez were called for technical fouls 32 seconds apart with just under five minutes left, helping the Celtics to a 20-5 run that gave them a 104-89 lead. The Bulls cut it to nine before Al Horford got loose for a dunk, Wade missed a 3-pointer and then Horford fed Jae Crowder for a layup that made it 108-95 with 99 seconds to play. Horford had 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for Boston, which entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the East. The Celtics lost the first two games at home — with Game 1 just a day after Thomas’ sister died in a car crash.