Tonight’s sole basketball game was Game 6 between the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards. The Celtics went into the game with a 3-2 lead in the series. Going into this game, too, the home team had won every game this series. However, in the playoffs, home teams were also 0-10 in home games when facing elimination and Matt Moore over at CBS Sports had some nice thoughts on that.
“Teams are 0-10 in elimination games at home in these playoffs. Think about that. Not one team has taken the series back to the other team’s place when faced with the edge of oblivion. It’s hard to believe that will continue to be the case, but sometimes the playoffs do follow certain trends.”
The first quarter started out a bit slow for each of the teams. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing since it kept the game relatively close. The Wizards had a five-point lead to end the quarter. The Celtics did a nice job on the defensive end to keep the Wizards from going on an early run as we’ve seen them do in previous games. Offensively, the Celtics were off the mark and the Wizards had some better luck getting to the rim.
The second quarter started at about the same pace for both team. Early in the quarter, Kelly Oubre Jr. got away with offensive interference on a basket. With 8:48 left in the second quarter, the Celtics were shooting a meager 28 percent from the field and only 18.2 percent from three-point land. They were only three points behind at that point, though, and tied it with their next possession at 26. Bradley Beal was on a roll for the Wizards and Avery Bradley continued to shoot well for the Celtics.
With just over three minutes left in the first half, Isaiah Thomas hit a three, which the Celtics needed, and then proceeded to chuck the ball down the court to Bradley on the next play. After being fouled, Bradley brought the Celtics within five points. For the Wizards, Markieff Morris missed a dunk and turned the ball over on the next possession. The momentum shifted to the Celtics, and they went into halftime with a one-point lead and the score was 42-41.
Things stayed close in the third quarter despite a poor performance on the offensive end from the Celtics bench. Isaiah went out with about three minutes left, but returned shortly after to finish out the quarter. John Wall stepped up with 13 points in the third quarter after only having three in the first half. It kept the Wizards in the game. However, the Celtics finished the quarter with a three-point lead.
The final quarter was the last chance for the Wizards to regain the lead and stay alive in the series. With 9:45 left to play, the Wizards took a one-point lead. Washington stepped it up and halfway through the fourth had a two-point lead and even forced the Celtics into a shot clock violation. With 5:20 left to go in the game, the Celtics bench had only contributed five points. Thomas hit two shots in a row towards the end of the game to give the Celtics a five-point lead.
Wall tied up the game at 87 with 41.2 seconds left in the game. With 14.1 seconds left, the Celtics called a timeout to increase the suspense of the tied game. Al Horford banked in a shot to give the Celtics the lead, 91-89, with 7.7 seconds remaining. John Wall answered with a three to give the Wizards a one-point lead with 3.5 seconds left. Boston missed their final shot attempt and the Wizards won 92-91. This was by far the most competitive game of the series so far and the winner will be determined in Game 7.
[Featured Image by Rob Carr/Getty Images]