Wizards look to protect home court, force Game 7

The good news for Washington is that the home team has not only won every game in this series, but going back into the regular season the home team has gone 9-0 when these two teams have gone to battle.

The Boston Celtics can advance to their first conference final since the 2011-12 season with a victory here.

The second-round series between the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards in the 2017 NBA Playoffs has been characterized by one thing: home-court dominance. Thomas was held to just 18 points in Game 5, but he also had nine assists and three rebounds. It would give Wall and Beal more chances to score effectively, but more foul calls make it harder for the Wizards to get into they kind of rhythm it takes to go on one of those backbreaking runs. In four games in D.C. they’ve lost by an average of 21.5 points. But their three stars (John Wall, Bradley Beal and Marcin Gortat) played in two of those seven losses, which both just so happened to be a Game 6.

John Wall went for 40p-13a, but it wasn’t quite enough as the Wizards fell 129-119 to the Celtics in an overtime thriller on Tuesday night in Boston. A force on both ends of the court, Horford scored 19 points with 7 assists and had 3 blocks.

LeBron James and his six NBA All-Defensive Team selections still gets left off of some “two-way player” rankings – although he is ironically often described as the best all-around player in the world.

A Game 6 win for the Celtics in Washington would quickly surpass game 5 as their most impressive win of the post season. Or they could throw some dummy traps at IT. Boston should focus on running the offense through Al Horford and hopefully guys like Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder will step up again. It can’t just be Isaiah Thomas every single night.

Following a Game 5 in the San Antonio/Houston series that proved to be the most exciting and most competitive of the second round, the congruent swing match in the Washington/Boston series proved to be quite a bit less interesting.

His playoff run lasted all of one game last season thanks to a hamstring injury in the opening game of Boston’s first-round matchup with Atlanta. He did it all, and we need that from him; especially even in Game 6 we’re going to need that from him.

Because of those hips and a 17-point lead that ballooned to as many as 26 in the last quarter, Bradley did not return after the end of the third.

Oubre finished with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting in 20 minutes Wednesday night.

“They made shots tonight”, said Wizards coach Scott Brooks. “I will f*ck you up, and you know that”, he said. This year’s first half looked to be a lottery team but they caught fire and were one of the hottest teams in the National Basketball Association after the calendar flipped.

Guard Isaiah Thomas has been fined $25,000 for inappropriate language toward a fan during the Celtics’ Game 4 loss at Washington. Better if they had gotten it done in Games 1, 2 or 5, but it never matters which one you steal. That’s when we’re at our best: “when we’re able to move the ball around and everyone’s touching it and everyone’s making plays for each other”. Although it’s not as dominant of a showing as his Game 2 performance, it showed how much he’s evolved as a player.