KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2010 / SPORTS
5B
GAME 5 at Denver
2010 NBA PLAYOFFS
Denver 116,
Utah 102
(Utah leads
series 3-2)
NEXT GAME:
Friday, at Utah
p.9.m., ESPN2
TONIGHT'S GAMES
GAME 6 Dallas at San Antonio (San Antonio leads series, 3-2)
GAME 6
Phoenix at Portland
(Phoenix leads series, 3-2)
Bucks take 3-2 series lead on No.3 Hawks
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — With Andrew Bogut cheering from the bench, Brandon Jennings teamed with Kurt Thomas in a duo for the ages to push the Milwaukee Bucks one win from an improbable first-round upset.
Jennings scored 25 points. Thomas drew a crucial charging foul against Joe Johnson and the Bucks stunned the home team with a 14-0 run late in the game, beating the favored Hawks 91-87 on Wednesday night for a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Bogut is watching the playoffs with a cast on his right hand after taking a grusome fall late in the regular season, but the 20-year old Jennings keeps stepping up big with darting moves to the hoop and timely jumpers.
Milwaukee's third straight win over third-seeded Atlanta gives the upstarts a chance to wrap up the series at home in Game 6 on Friday night.
"The main thing was just keep attacking, keeping attacking," Jennings said. "The pressure's not on us."
The 37-year-old Thomas, one of the league's oldest players, doesn't show up much on the stat sheet but he may have come up with the biggest play of the game when he stepped out to take a charge from Johnson with 2:15
remaining, the Atlanta star's sixth foul.
The Hawks appeared to be in control leading 82-73 after Josh Smith's long jumper with 4:10 remaining. Milwaukee scored the next 14 points, however, and Jennings wrapped it up by making two free throws with 9 seconds remaining.
Jamal Crawford, who had an awful game one day after winning the NBAs Sixth Man Award, threw up a desperation 3-pointer that missed badly and the Bucks ran out the final seconds. While Milwaukee celebrated with chest bumps in the center of Philips Arena, the Hawks straggled off the court, serenaded by boys from their own crowd.
Atlanta dominated the first two games on its home court and fully expected to win at least one game in Milwaukee, which would have set them up to clinch at home in Game 5.
"Bye-bye, Woody!" someone shouted at Atlanta coach Mike Woodson, whose contract is up at the end of a season that is one loss away from ending much earlier than expected.
Instead, it's the gritty Bucks, appearing in the playoffs for the first time since 2006, who are on the verge of moving on to face waiting Orlando in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Milwaukee shot 41 percent from the field but came through when it mattered, simply outworking an Atlanta team that seemed more
and more stunned to find itself in a tough series. John Salmons added 19 points and Luke Ridnour had 15.
The Bucks continually drove to the hoop in the fourth quarter, drawing foul after foul and hitting 15 of 18 free throws. Stunningly, Atlanta never got to the line in the final period.
Marvin Williams had 22 points for the Hawks, who couldn't overcome the dismal showings by Crawford and Johnson, who managed just 13 points on 6-of-16 shooting before fouling out.
The Hawks appeared to be taking control in the third quarter with the sort of play that had been missing since the first two games in Atlanta.
Johnson took things into his own hands, driving right around Thomas for a dunk that broke a 50-50 tie and sparked a 17-4 run that took less than 4 minutes. Johnson also hit a couple of jumpers during the spurt, and he got plenty of support from Horford and Williams.
Hortford scored six points, including a couple of ferocious dunks set up by passes from Mike Bibby. After the second jam, Bibby backpedaled down the court with a smile on his face, the Hawks appearing to have fun for the first time all night.
GAME 5
at Atlanta
Milwaukee 91,
Atlanta 87
(Milwaukee leads
series,3-2)
2010 NHL PLAYOFFS
NEXT GAME:
at Milwaukee
Friday, 6 p.m.
ESPN
Capitals collapse: Senators win series against regular season champs
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Led by Jaroslav Halak's spectacular, acrobatic goaltending, the Montreal Canadiens slowed Alex Ovechkin and the rest of the Washington Capitals' high-powered offense to complete an unlikely comeback and eliminate the NHL's best regular-season team in the first round.
Halak made 41 saves, Marc-Andre Bergeron scored a 4-on-3 goal in the last 30 seconds of the opening period Wednesday night, and eighth-seeded Montreal held on to beat Washington 2-1 in Game 7, stunning the Presidents' Trophy winners by peeling off three consecutive victories. "I'm in shock right now. I don't know
what to say." Ovechkin said, his voice low, his eyes staring at the floor of the locker room.
The Canadiens are the ninth No. 8 team to knock off a No. 1 in 32 matchups since the NHL went to its current playoff format in 1994 — and the first to come back from a 3-1 series deficit.
"Before the series started, no one gave us a chance to win, not even one game," Halak said. "We proved (to) them they were wrong."
Dominic Moore made it 2-0 for the Canadiens with $3\frac{1}{2}$ minutes left, stealing the puck from defenseman Mike Green and beating goalie Semyon Varlamov. That silenced the home crowd — but the Capitals didn't go quietly.
Brooks Laich cut Washington's deficit to a goal by poking home a shot while down on his knees after Ovechkin put the puck on net off a rebound. That made it 2-1 with 2:16 left, and the Capitals kept pushing frantically forward, pulling Varamov for an extra attacker down the stretch.
Halak's teammates piled on him at the final horn, while Ovechkin skated all alone toward the other end of the ice, his stick resting on his knees, and his head bowed.
A high-sticking penalty call against Montreal defenseman Ryan O'Byrne with 1:44 to go put the Capitals on the power play. But Halak was up to the task every time, and he was helped by a remarkably high total of 41 shots that Montreal's skaters were credited with blocking.
The league's two-time MVP has played in four career playoff series, and each has gone to a Game 7. The Capitals are 1-3 in those deciding contests.
"I thought we had a good chance to win the Stanley Cup this year," Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said.
Montreal moves on to face Sidney Crosby and the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins in the second round, with Game 1 at Pittsburgh on Friday. The fourth-seeded Penguins were the only higher-seeded team to win a first-round series in the Eastern Conference.
Yes, that's right: All three division champions in the East are done already — Washington, New Jersey and Buffalo.
GAME7 at Washington, D.C.
Montreal 3,
Washington 1
(Montreal won series, 4-3)
NEXT GAME:
Montreal at Pittsburgh
Friday, 6 p.m.