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Playoff Pixels, Wizards vs. Bulls (Game 5): HOW 'BOUT THEM WIZARDS?!?!

We've been expecting this for a week or so now, but wow, they actually did it. The Wizards (THE WIZARDS!!!) won a playoff series. Bring on the second round. WOOO!!

By Jeff Newman

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Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

Cel-e-brate good times, c'mon!!

That was an ugly way to clinch, Wizards, but we'll take it, right guys?

Indeed, WOO!!

Washington took care of business in its first chance to advance to the second round, defeating the Bulls in Chicago, 75-69, with the Big Three leading the way. John Wall scored a game-high 24 points (7-of-19 shooting, 9-of-11 FTs) to go with seven rebounds and four assists. Back from his one-game suspension, Nene resumed his domination, scoring 20 points on 10-of-17 shooting, and grabbing seven boards. Bradley Beal chipped in 17 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Marcin Gortat only scored two points on 1-of-5 shooting, but he hauled in a team-high 13 rebounds, including three-straight offensive boards within a one-minute span at the end of the game to help seal the series for the Wizards. After leading the team with 30 points in Game 4, Trevor Ariza had a more subdued Game 5 with only six points, but he tallied nine rebounds and continued his suffocating defense. Trevor Booker remained huge off the bench, scoring six points to go with seven rebounds and boundless energy that had Steve Kerr declaring CookBook his "new favorite player" in the NBA.

The game was as scrappy as one would expect from an elimination game, and on a night when they shot only 40.5 percent as a team, the Wizards relied on their defense holding the Bulls to 33 percent shooting. Washington also won all the hustle stats (see below).

But yeah, WE'RE GOING TO THE SECOND ROUND!! Bring on the Pacers or Hawks (but seriously, LET'S GO HAWKS!!).

KEY LINKS

Road team recaps: BF StoryStream | SB Nation | Washington Post (gamer, sidebar, Wise column, Noah on Wiz) | DC Sports Bog (best-worst, celebration GIFs, ultimate troll, ratings spike, Pacers-Hawks?, Ted 'not satisfied') | AP | CSN Washington (recap, sidebar, keys to series win, Pacers-Hawks?, Wiz becoming destination?)  | Truth About It | Wiz of Awes (recap, column) | DC Pro Sports Report | Hoop District (recap, live from Chicago) | District Sports Page | DC Sports Box | ESPN | SI | Ball Don't Lie | NBA.com | CBS Sports | USA Today | Bleacher Report | Hoops Habit | Ted's Take | Wizards.com | Monumental Network | Quibbles Forever

Home team recaps: Blog A Bull StoryStream | Chicago Tribune (gamer, sidebar) | Chicago Sun-Times (gamer, sidebar, column) | ESPN Chicago (recap, sidebar) | CSN Chicago (recap, sidebar, Gibson injury, Noah injuy, series stats, Bulls' future, Wiz on the rise) | Times of Northwest Indiana | Chicagoist | Pippen Ain't Easy (recap, sidebar, lessons learned) | Bulls.com

Game highlights

AAAAAHHHHHHH IT'S AWESOOOOOOOMME!!!

Fast Break w/ Dave & Glenn

Postgame interviews: Randy Wittman | John Wall & Bradley Beal | Nene | Marcin Gortat | Trevor Ariza | Tom Thibodeau | Joakim Noah | Taj Gibson | Kirk Hinrich

KEY STATS

6 - Offensive rebounds collected by the Wizards in the final two minutes of the game, including three straight by Gortat that gave Washington a minute-long possession beginning at the 1:58 mark. Coincidentally, the Wizards also outrebounded the Bulls by six (49-to-43) for the game.

11 - Washington's advantage in fast break points (13-to-2) against Chicago.

8 - Washington's advantage in paint scoring (26-to-18) against the Bulls.

TWEETS OF THE NIGHT

VIDEO/GIF OF THE NIGHT

Doesn't get any better than this.

FIRST HALF GAMETHREAD COMMENT OF THE NIGHT

Gt_comment

SECOND HALF GAMETHREAD COMMENT(S) OF THE NIGHT

Gt_comment

wizkidforlife

Should we accept bandwagoners?

by wizkidforlife on Apr 29, 2014 | 7:47 PM

GAME RECAP COMMENT OF THE NIGHT

Gt_comment

FIRST HALF GAMETHREAD ROLLCALL

# Commenter # Comments
1 BealMVP4ever 51
2 qthaballa 50
3 tarheel723 46
4 terpsDC 43
5 DCrez 35
6 tw10 31
7 TheBackCourt 30
8 Hands11 27
9 Rice2012 27
10 Ottoman-Empire 26
11 Chetho 23
12 lobster11 22
13 mr. 91 20
14 richkam14 19
15 Baird15 17
16 LRJ 14
17 ryanwadams 12
18 Astilita 11
19 Wiz-kid 9
20 KappakidToo 9
21 novadada 8
22 Nickdogggmoneycash 8
23 MeToo 7
24 eltacoman 6
25 satchmore 6
26 henrylau11 6
27 John Wall Stan 6
28 nesby8 6
29 TeamDC 6
30 Brown Flash 5
31 jaffejoe 5
32 little stevie colter 5
33 Tibia 5
34 Bullet Nation in Exile 5
35 Big Spoon 4
36 DCKRS 4
37 WASwizardsfan671 3
38 DCnhokies 3
39 'SkinsFan214life 3
40 Bradley_B3al 3
41 Yeti60 3
42 Mike Prada 3
43 wizkidforlife 2
44 t0Shihiro 2
45 KurisuDevil 2
46 Endless Paradise 2
47 ThePGPhenomenon 2
48 elliotlevy2 2
49 kdbterps 2
50 sluMDoc 1
51 ywlee22 1
52 VBfan 1
53 PasqualeGMP 1
54 Jormond Wall 1
55 Sean Qtip Guilliams 1
56 spotless 1
57 twistyroad 1
58 solo.charles.5 1
59 ATrueNigerian 1
60 Phemy. 1
61 hscer 1
62 LouWill82 1
63 g_andal16 1
64 jrhooo 1
65 Jolly Greene 1
66 ilintar 1
67 KB5 1
68 BadMoveSmoove 1
69 Rook6980 1
70 hambonejackson 1
71 DCPerspective 1

SECOND HALF GAMETHREAD ROLLCALL

# Commenter # Comments
1 BealMVP4ever 42
2 DCrez 42
3 lobster11 42
4 mr. 91 41
5 Rice2012 39
6 terpsDC 38
7 SladeKillah 35
8 TheBackCourt 31
9 wizkidforlife 31
10 qthaballa 30
11 Hands11 29
12 Craig_ 27
13 tw10 27
14 Wiz-kid 27
15 KappakidToo 24
16 ryanwadams 21
17 little stevie colter 21
18 Chetho 19
19 WASwizardsfan671 18
20 dc_chilling 17
21 Astilita 17
22 LRJ 16
23 KurisuDevil 15
24 novadada 14
25 Baird15 12
26 Nickdogggmoneycash 12
27 jaffejoe 11
28 Yeti60 8
29 Osi. 7
30 DCKRS 7
31 wync 6
32 ATrueNigerian 6
33 Rook6980 6
34 nesby8 6
35 cuppettcj 6
36 eltacoman 5
37 njccc 5
38 richkam14 5
39 spanishfalcon 4
40 tengis 4
41 hotplate 4
42 satchmore 4
43 hscer 3
44 The Hoops Guru 3
45 ThePGPhenomenon 3
46 jazzy1 3
47 jackemupkid 3
48 Big Spoon 3
49 Hulk_07 3
50 ATLredskin 3
51 Joe.H 3
52 elliotlevy2 2
53 John Wall Stan 2
54 Inside Job 2
55 Analytics 2
56 wjb1492 2
57 DCON88 2
58 khrabb 2
59 ZonkerBL 2
60 Tibia 2
61 George Templeton 2
62 dcsportsnut 2
63 tuff-gong 2
64 kyleMaroc 2
65 KD Drummond 2
66 henrylau11 2
67 sluMDoc 2
68 stanis3k 1
69 Primetimefish 1
70 makpilot23 1
71 abala 1
72 TheBlairWizProject 1
73 tarheel723 1
74 Pluto1911 1
75 wiz31 1
76 MasterYster 1
77 WizardFan 1
78 Horcasitas4 1
79 greatWALLofDC 1
80 wuds100 1
81 MeToo 1
82 DCPerspective 1
83 segrt12 1
84 Bryan1976 1
85 Robert Crane 1
86 Knowledge92 1
87 diplomaniac 1
88 Sean Qtip Guilliams 1
89 Phemy. 1
90 jsuh0 1
91 fuerstma 1
92 KStalz 1
93 Palace of Good Play's Golden Toilet 1
94 t0Shihiro 1
95 caps&skins 1
96 ThisGuy10 1
97 Seat pleasant 1
98 rsilbe 1
99 Orelac 1
100 Ricky McFly 1

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Wizards vs. Bulls, NBA Playoffs 2014 Game 5: Washington moves to second round

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