Al Horford’s game-winning putback pushes Hawks past Wizards in Game 5 thriller
Al Horford made a game-winning putback layup with 1.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to outpace another bit of late-game heroism from Paul Pierce and push the Atlanta Hawks past the Washington Wizards, 82-81, in a wild and frenzied Game 5 at Philips Arena on Wednesday night.
A nip-and-tuck contest that saw the soaring return of injured Wizards superstar John Wall, ramped-up defensive intensity, lots of missed shots and more drama than any rockfight should came down to the final minute of regulation. With the score tied at 78, Horford missed a 21-footer that could’ve put the Hawks back in front, and watched as Wall — less than two weeks removed from suffering five nondisplaced fractures in his left wrist and hand — dove for the rebound, hitting the floor, corralling the miss and calling timeout to give the Wizards a chance to plunge another dagger into the heart of the Atlanta faithful.
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On the ensuing Wizards possession, Wall attacked off a high screen before elevating and pitching the ball back out to Pierce, who drove against Hawks defender DeMarre Carroll. As Pierce curled into the lane, though, he came face-to-face with the help defense of Kyle Korver, prompting him to stop short.
As Pierce pivoted and looked to reverse his field, he lost the ball, with Korver getting credit for his sixth (not a typo!) steal of the game. Horford, who had stepped up to meet Wall coming off the pick, snagged the loose ball and began running the fast break far more fluidly than a 6-foot-10, 245-pounder should be able to. He and Carroll ran a picture-perfect two-on-one break, with Carroll eventually beating the backtracking Wall for a layup that put Atlanta up 80-78 with 14.9 seconds remaining, forcing the Wizards to take a timeout and regroup.
And man, did they come back with a vengeance.
Coming out of the timeout — the Wizards’ last, mind you — Wittman called for a baseline “hammer” set. As Washington shooting guard Bradley Beal cut to receive the inbounds pass from Otto Porter, Pierce cut to the left corner, with center Marcin Gortat setting a back-screen that enveloped Pierce’s defender, Paul Millsap. Beal curled toward the basket, got to the baseline and swung the ball straight to Pierce, now wide open in the short corner.
He uncorked the jumper over the outstretched arms of Millsap, and unlike his final shot of Game 4, this one splashed through, redeeming his prior turnover, giving the Wizards an 81-80 lead with 8.3 seconds left, and leaving Wittman beside himself with … I guess that’s glee?
Eight seconds can be a lifetime in the NBA, though, and the Hawks still had one more opportunity to answer.
Korver inbounded to reserve point guard Dennis Schröder, who drove straight down the middle of the paint against Wall, who had coldly rejected one of his shots four minutes earlier. Wall got the German sophomore again, and it looked like the Wizards would hold on for a huge road win. But then came Horford, flying in from the back side of the play, to rip the loose ball away from Nene, rise up and lay the ball in with 1.9 seconds remaining, as the Philips Arena faithful exploded.
With no timeouts left, the Wiz had to go, and quickly. Pierce inbounded to Wall, who took one dribble and heaved up a prayer from just beyond half-court. It went unanswered, leaving the Wiz just one defensive board shy of heading home with a 3-2 lead, and giving the Hawks two shots at closing Washington out.
It was a fitting end to a brilliant evening for Horford, who turned in an absolute star performance when his team most desperately needed him — especially on a final play with which he was supposed to have very little to do.
“Well, the play was for Dennis to go score,” Horford told TNT’s David Aldridge after the win. “I was just supposed to set a screen for Kyle. I seen that it got a little crowded in there. Paul was supposed to get the rebound if we missed, but it’s the end of the game, we’re making plays, we’re trying to win. I just went ahead and got it and put it back in.”
The All-Star center finished with 23 points on 10-for-18 shooting, with nine coming in the final quarter, to go with 11 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive glass, five blocks and two assists in 37 minutes of play. He’s the first player in Hawks history to score 20-plus points, grab 10 or more rebounds and block at least five shots in a playoff game, and his heroics — plus strong late-game work from Schröder (four points, three assists, one steal, one turnover in just under 10 minutes of fourth-quarter play) and stout team defense, holding Washington to 34 points on 35.1 percent shooting in the second half — helped deliver a win that he himself could scarcely describe in the moments following the final buzzer.
Asked by Aldridge how the heck the Hawks pulled out a win on a night where they shot just 5-for-22 from 3-point land and turned the ball over 25 times, Horford could only laugh.
“I don’t know, man,” he said. “I really don’t. We didn’t play well at all. We struggled. Credit to them. We had a lot of careless turnovers. But we found a way, man. We found a way. We got it done.”
And now, thanks to some timely board-crashing from their best player, the Hawks will head to D.C. for Friday’s Game 6 looking to finish the job and advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in the franchise’s Atlanta history.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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