WASHINGTON – John Wall figured the credit went to the down-the-stretch defense displayed by his Washington Wizards.
Neither Dennis Schroder nor coach Mike Budenholzer found any flaws with the way their Atlanta Hawks handled things late.
Either way, the odd manner in which Atlanta seemed to allow the final half-minute or so to slip away while trailing – not fouling Washington to try to extend things; passing around the ball, instead of shooting it, as the clock headed toward zero – left the Wizards on the verge of closing out the teams’ Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
In Boston, Avery Bradley scored 24 points and held Chicago star Jimmy Butler to 14 points as the Celtics romped to a 108-97 victory over the Bulls to likewise wrest a 3-2 lead in their side of the best-of-seven series.
Isaiah Thomas also scored 24 for the Celtics, the top seed in the East. 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.
Al Horford had 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for the Celtics. Bradley’s 24 points were a career playoff high, but after watching him hold Butler to 14 points – and just one foul shot – Celtics coach Brad Stevens praised Bradley’s defense.
“Jimmy Butler’s a hard guy to guard. Dwyane Wade’s a hard guy to guard. You’re not going to stop those guys, but you just try to make it as hard as possible,” Stevens said. “Avery ... has done a really good job.”
Butler, who shot 23 free throws in Game 4 and made 19, was 0 for 1 on Wednesday.
“I was trying to eliminate letting Jimmy Butler get to the free throw line. That was my goal this game, and I feel like I did it,” Bradley said.
Wade had 26 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. 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 turned an 84-84 game into a 15-point Boston lead.
The Bulls cut it to nine before 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.
Back in Washington and back in charge, Bradley Beal scored 27 points, and Wall added 20 points and 14 assists, leading Washington to a 103-99 victory in Game 5 on Wednesday night for a 3-2 series lead.
“I thought they were going to play the foul game – or at least try to trap. But they let us run the clock down,” Wall said, noting that he felt as if he and his teammates finished “with the best scrambling defense we had.”
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. Neither team would score the rest of the way.
“It was right there,” Schroder said. “We’ve just got to be better in crunch time.”
A miss followed from Paul Millsap, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds, but after Wall’s jumper was off the mark, the Hawks never managed to put the ball in the basket – including sort of fiddling around as if they didn’t realize they were trailing by four.
“We tried to get a clean look,” Tim Hardaway Jr. said, “but they just did a good job of ... making it tough on us.”
Budenholzer’s take?
“I’m not, off the top of my head, frustrated with what we got offensively,” he said.