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Playoffs Pixels, Wizards vs. Bulls: .............WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!

Seriously, is this real life??

By Jeff Newman

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Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Wait...wait a minute guys. Are we sure we saw what we thought we saw? Is it actually true? Did it really happen?

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Marcin is pretty speaking for all us right there, I think. Man oh man, how 'bout these Wizards? At least for today, they're the talk of the NBA, and maybe, if you use ESPN's front page as a barometer, all of sport.

Just an amazing game for this team. Down by 10 points with seven minutes to play on the road against a desperate Bulls team that ranked as one of the best defensive clubs in the league, how many of us started to look ahead to Game 3, satisfied the Wizards would return to D.C. having stolen homecourt and with the series tied at 1-1?

The Wizards certainly didn't, and ended the game on a 14-4 run thanks to nine straight points from Bradley Beal and some splendid defense by Trevor Ariza on D.J. Augustin.

Beal missed a potential game-winner at the end of regulation to send the game to overtime, where Nene quickly took over, scoring the first six points to give Washington the lead and generate the above GIF. Trevor Booker and John Wall each made a pair of clutch free throws to maintain the lead, but Wall got called for a bad offensive foul pushing off on the inbounds following a Joakim Noah layup, giving the ball back to Chicago with 39 seconds to play.

Four seconds later, Noah got fouled and sank both free throws. Beal followed it up with a miss on the other end, and the Bulls had the ball with 15 seconds to go and chance to tie or take the lead. Then, this happened.

Notice how Hinrich is already on his back by the time the whistle goes off? Don't worry, #WizardsTwitter noticed, as well.

But then, for seemingly the first time all game, the Wizards got some well-earned luck, as Kirk Hinrich clanged the first free throw needed to keep the game alive for the Bulls.

Apparently, the ball doesn't lie, folks. Hinrich intentionally missed the second free throw, but Wall corralled the rebound, and that was it. Ballgame, 2-0, rejoice.

Us too, Amin. Us too. I'm still hyperventilating.

Beal led the way in this one with a game-high 26 points and seven rebounds on 9-of-20 shooting, while Nene following up his dominant Game 1 with an solid 17 points (8-of-13 shooting) and seven boards in Game 2. Wall had a better game than his line (16 points on 6-of-15 shooting, seven assists, five turnovers) indicates, as he did a very good job running the offense down the stretch. He also keyed a critical run over the final minute of the first half, scoring seven points to push Washington's lead from 49-48 to 56-49 entering halftime.

Marcin Gortat struggled all game, scoring only seven points on 2-of-9 shooting, but Trevor Booker came up huge with nine points and eight rebounds off the bench. Trevor Ariza had a good all-around game with eight points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and most importantly, his defense on Augustin. And though Beal led the Wizards' fourth-quarter comeback, it was Martell Webster (10 points, 4-of-6 shooting) who got it started with perhaps the shot of the game, a three-pointer inside the seven-minute mark to cut the deficit to 87-80.

The Wizards were outrebounded 49-42 and shot only 57 percent (16-for-28) at the foul line, and still left Chicago up 2-0. We couldn't have asked for any more over the first two games. Great job. The Bulls are drowning, and now they have to win a game in D.C. to keep this series alive. Don't let them up for air.

KEY LINKS

Road team recaps: BF StoryStream | SB Nation (recap, The Hook) | Washington Post (gamer, sidebar, Wise game column, Wise column on Beal, Game 2 by the numbers) | Washington Times (gamer, Harris column) | AP | CSN Washington (recap, Wittman sidebar, Ariza sidebar, AARP sidebar) | NBA.com | SI (recap, Nene feature) | Ball Don't Lie | ProBasketballTalk | CBS Sports | USA Today | DC Sports Bog (Game 2 best & worst, Buck calls Hinrich's miss, 2-0 first time since 1982, Wittman best postseason winning % in history, Barkley: Sweep, Legler: No weaknesses, St. Louis pizza > Chicago pizza) | Truth about It (recap, Hinrich luv) | Wiz of Awes (recap, Beal sidebar) | Hoop District | DC Pro Sports Report | District Sports Page | DC Sports Box | Ted's Take reality check!! | Wizards.com | Monumental Network

Home team recaps: Blog A Bull StoryStream | Chicago Tribune (gamer, Augustin sidebar, no offense sidebar, column) | Chicago Sun-Times (gamer, Beal sidebar, column) | ESPN (recap, 5-on-5, Wilbon, Augustin feature, Hinrich sidebar, Bulls D sidebar) | CSN Chicago (recap, Augustin sidebar, Hinrich sidebar, Thibodeau sidebar, offense sidebar) | CBS Chicago | Daily Herald | Bulls.com

Game highlights

Dave and Glenn's final call

Postgame interviews: Randy Wittman | John Wall & Bradley Beal | Nene | Marcin Gortat | Trevor Ariza | Martell Webster | Joakim Noah | Kirk Hinrich | D.J. Augustin | Tom Thibodeau

KEY STATS

3:53 - The last time the Bulls scored in regulation, on a Hinrich jumper that gave Chicago a 91-85 lead. Then Beal scored seven straight points to send the game to OT.

8:08 - The amount of time left in the fourth quarter when D.J. Augustin last scored. At that point, he'd scored a team-high 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting. Then Randy Wittman switched Trevor Ariza onto Augustin out of the under-six timeout, and Augustin only attempted three shots the rest of the game -- none in overtime -- and missed all three.

TWEETS OF THE NIGHT (there's a lot)

VIDEO/GIF OF THE NIGHT

*chills*

FIRST HALF GAMETHREAD COMMENT(S) OF THE NIGHT

These....are incredible.

Gt_comment

Gt_comment

SECOND HALF GAMETHREAD COMMENT OF THE NIGHT

Gt_comment

GAME RECAP COMMENT OF THE NIGHT

Gt_comment

FIRST HALF GAMETHREAD ROLLCALL

# Commenter # Comments
1 qthaballa 84
2 DavidDunn 67
3 lobster11 53
4 elliotlevy2 50
5 TheBackCourt 46
6 DCrez 38
7 Wizards Khalifa 32
8 jarem 24
9 ryanwadams 23
10 richkam14 22
11 LRJ 21
12 wync 21
13 Baird15 20
14 DCKRS 19
15 Gators2015_BB3 18
16 Astilita 17
17 nesby8 17
18 wanderwiz 16
19 Rice2012 15
20 gray16 15
21 tw10 15
22 Landshark52 14
23 ZonkerBL 13
24 MC-Sneaks 13
25 mr. 91 13
26 Wiz-kid 12
27 George Templeton 12
28 Emmet O'Neal 10
29 abala 10
30 jazzy1 10
31 Nickdogggmoneycash 10
32 BackScreenLob 10
33 The Hoops Guru 9
34 jayxelo 8
35 the new Bradfather 8
36 do.itch.big 8
37 DCPerspective 8
38 JimmyWall 7
39 novadada 7
40 dgackey 6
41 satchmore 6
42 NeverTheLess 6
43 Nubboi 6
44 Mandark 5
45 solo.charles.5 5
46 ATrueNigerian 5
47 ywlee22 5
48 eltacoman 4
49 Mike Prada 4
50 Phemy. 4
51 BulletsBandwagon 4
52 swaggyP 4
53 DCRunner 4
54 'SkinsFan214life 4
55 capital city banana smushers 3
56 Robert Crane 3
57 obeast 3
58 Pluto1911 3
59 spotless 3
60 gavalon55 3
61 ThePGPhenomenon 3
62 hotplate 2
63 MR 2
64 ATLredskin 2
65 Discodc 2
66 House of Guards 2
67 Rook6980 2
68 wad0cash 2
69 BealMVP4ever 2
70 John Wall Stan 2
71 pcakes00 2
72 segrt12 2
73 woods323 2
74 hambonejackson 2
75 sluMDoc 2
76 Free Javaris 1
77 uberm3nsch 1
78 DCON88 1
79 Destino 1
80 AhhYes 1
81 tengis 1
82 Krobify 1
83 BadMoveSmoove 1
84 cdinoke 1
85 MalcolmXandStuff 1
86 b3nz 1
87 abovelegit 1
88 Big Spoon 1
89 spanishfalcon 1
90 David Statman 1
91 Loanmoney001 1
92 GoSkinsGoCocks 1
93 Bryan1976 1
94 terpsDC 1
95 Keepin'_it_Beal 1
96 t0Shihiro 1

SECOND HALF GAMETHREAD ROLLCALL

# Commenter # Comments
1 qthaballa 87
2 lobster11 71
3 TheBackCourt 66
4 JimmyWall 63
5 elliotlevy2 60
6 Rice2012 59
7 Joe.H 55
8 tw10 53
9 DCrez 53
10 TerpsAllTheWay 48
11 LRJ 46
12 dc_chilling 46
13 George Templeton 45
14 Emmet O'Neal 40
15 ZonkerBL 33
16 DCKRS 30
17 Wizards Khalifa 28
18 gray16 27
19 NeverTheLess 27
20 jarem 27
21 LeHalfrican 25
22 oVecKid 24
23 dgackey 23
24 Palace of Good Play's Golden Toilet 23
25 hambonejackson 21
26 Gators2015_BB3 20
27 arian1123 19
28 Landshark52 19
29 ryanwadams 18
30 Discodc 18
31 Baird15 18
32 satchmore 17
33 Astilita 16
34 Nickdogggmoneycash 15
35 BealMVP4ever 15
36 caps&skins 15
37 abala 15
38 DavidDunn 15
39 cuppettcj 14
40 mr. 91 13
41 richkam14 12
42 wanderwiz 12
43 ATLredskin 12
44 wync 12
45 spotless 11
46 nesby8 11
47 17squall 10
48 'SkinsFan214life 10
49 Im_So_DC 10
50 jrhooo 9
51 MC-Sneaks 9
52 DCON88 9
53 obeast 9
54 The Hoops Guru 9
55 novadada 8
56 ThePGPhenomenon 8
57 little stevie colter 8
58 Big Spoon 8
59 DCPerspective 8
60 murtd1 7
61 hotplate 7
62 njccc 7
63 Craig_ 7
64 jaffejoe 6
65 reglw22 6
66 t0Shihiro 6
67 WASwizardsfan671 6
68 Finnarious 5
69 MR 5
70 Kuruption 5
71 Nubboi 5
72 jazzy1 5
73 Justcos 5
74 Wiz-kid 5
75 tarheel723 4
76 Rook6980 4
77 ATrueNigerian 4
78 sluMDoc 4
79 khrabb 4
80 James Hare 3
81 gavalon55 3
82 Phemy. 3
83 do.itch.big 3
84 YellaFella 3
85 jackemupkid 3
86 Jormond Wall 3
87 KurisuDevil 3
88 gregjohnson1229 3
89 dmatos2 3
90 DCnhokies 3
91 makpilot23 2
92 wuds100 2
93 All dc and unc 2
94 Knowledge92 2
95 mrudolph30 2
96 Horcasitas4 2
97 MalcolmXandStuff 2
98 rsilbe 2
99 VBfan 1
100 the new Bradfather 1
101 SladeKillah 1
102 DSRalltheway 1
103 rhythmic 1
104 Max Zamphirescu 1
105 spanishfalcon 1
106 tengis 1
107 KB5 1
108 Kend3zy 1
109 SpursFanTN 1
110 Beniek 1
111 blindnil 1
112 Tbonebullets 1
113 Barragan 1
114 eltacoman 1
115 Le Bullet 1
116 Bullet Nation in Exile 1
117 p.robb87 1
118 DaPropertyOvSeptember07 1
119 baltimorebullets80 1
120 Akbar264 1
121 John Wall Stan 1
122 Wizard fan in So Cal 1
123 capital city banana smushers 1
124 House of Guards 1
125 Hulk_07 1
126 scatterbrain 1

In This Stream

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