BL's Take: Hah! Take that, Cavaliers! But seriously, I had considered the Wizards completely out of this series; done, finito! But they showed that they had not given up, things got a little physical, DeShawn Stevenson goes insane, next thing you know…the Wizards escape with a 1-point win on Cleveland's home court. The question is this: can the Wizards go back home and get the Cavs again to tie the series and force game 7?
The key for the Wizards was the awakening of Caron Butler from his slumber. Butler played all-star basketball tonight, and took the Wizards upon his shoulders, much like LeBron does every night for the Cavaliers. The difference? A lay-in…the last shot of the game, was taken by LeBron…and he missed it. He won't miss too many of those, but credit to the Wizards for not giving in, and staying in the game. By their body language, you can tell that they truly believe that they can beat the Cavaliers.
James didn't shoot well at all, but got contributions from Ilgauskas and DeLonte West. If Wally Szczerbiak had played half-way decent, the Wizards would have been sunk (Wally was 1-6, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 4 turnovers in 18 minutes of action. And hasn't DeLonte West turned into the truly worthwhile pickup in that midseason trade that sent Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes to the Bulls? West is turning into a bonafide starting point guard, for sure, and is even an upgrade over Hughes and the two-dimensional Daniel ‘Boobie' Gibson.
Cleveland will be going into hostile territory for game 6 in Washington. They had best be prepared, as Washington's confidence is sky high, and they could very well tie this series. Can you tell that I REALLY want Washington to advance?
BL's Take: The Celtics pulled together, proving what a veteran team can do when motivated, and slaughtered the Hawks. The Celtics were up by 8 in the first quarter, and just continued on from their. The Celtics outscored the Hawks in every quarter. Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Allen all had very even production, and that is certainly a sign of sharing the basketball, in addition to the 28 assists the team had total (compared to the Hawks 16 assists). The Celts also out-rebounded the Hawks 39-28, and that told the difference.
It should be noted that the Hawks have come a long way from where they were just last year, and it seems that the intangibles factors of adding Mike Bibby have helped them exponentially. Now the Hawks will move back to Atlanta for game 6 and try to tie this thing up to force a game 7. The Hawks are in the same situation that the Wizards are in – you're the lower seed, the underdog, down one game, going into your home floor to try to squeeze another game out. The only difference is that the Wizards have a better chance of finishing the Cavs, than the Hawks do of finishing the Celtics, and by a large margin.
One of the factors in this game was limiting the number of opportunities that Joe Johnson and Josh Smith had offensively, as those two players are the keys to the offensive production of the Hawks. If those two aren't really going, it is difficult for the remainder of the team to pick up the slack. Now the Hawks will need to move into game 6 and kick it into their game 4 gear. It is well known that the Hawks play A LOT better at home. We'll see how this one plays out.
Be back later tomorrow night for another BeatDown FastBreak, covering game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarter Final match-up from the Wachovia Center where 2 seed Detroit Pistons will face the 7 seeded Philadelphia 76ers.
