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Playoff Pixels, Wizards vs. Pacers (Game 1): Relive the glory of Washington's first 2nd round playoff win in 32 years

Get ready for Game 2 by reliving Washington's first second round playoff victory since 1982. Seriously, this is the best professional basketball team in the nation's capital in more than three decades.

By Jeff Newman

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Andy Lyons

What better way to prepare for Game 2 of Wizards-Pacers than by reliving the ecstasy that was Washington's 102-96 Game 1 victory, its first second-round playoff win since freaking 1982, a good five years before I was even born.

That's right. Somehow, this is the best Wizards/Bullets team I (and I'm guessing many of you) have ever known. It just feels so weird, because only a few weeks ago we were worried about falling to the sixth seed and a quick postseason demise at the hands of the Heat. Now, after Game 1, most everybody is expecting the Wizards to finish off the top-seeded Pacers and end up playing the Heat in the conference finals.

Really, the Wizards (THE WIZARDS?!?!) are the toast of the NBA. They're the best story left, the team no one few people saw coming. Every other team left in the playoffs is either a perennial championship contender (Spurs, Heat, Thunder), was expected to make it to this point (Pacers, Clippers), or at the very least hasn't shocked anyone by getting out of the first round and summarily dropping its first game of Round 2 (Nets, Trail Blazers). Last year, it was the Splash Bros. This year, it's House of Guards.

Soak it all in, Washington. This team's going places. Now, let's win Game 2, and put this series to bed.

KEY LINKS

Road team recaps: BF StoryStream | Washington Post (gamer, sidebar, JReid column, Wise column) | DC Sports Bog (Barkley's guarantee, Gil trolls Roy) | AP | Washington Times (gamer, Loverro column) | CSN Washington (recap, Hibbert sidebar, Ariza sidebar, Gooden sidebar)  | Truth About It | Wiz of Awes | DC Pro Sports Report | Hoop District | District Sports Page | SI | ESPN (recap, keys) | Ted's Take | Wizards.com | Monumental Network | Daily Wizdom

Home team recaps: Indy Cornrows StoryStream | Indy Star (recap, gamer, sidebar, column) | 8 Points 9 Seconds | Pacers Pulse | Pacers.com

Game highlights

Postgame interviews: Randy Wittman | Bradley Beal | Trevor Ariza | John Wall | Nene | Marcin Gortat | Frank Vogel | Paul George | David West | Lance Stephenson

KEY STATS

0 - The stat that everyone kept citing after Game 1 was the double donut put up by Roy Hibbert in points and rebounds.

17 - The real stat of the game was Washington's 53-36 advantage on the boards. Not only did the Wizards outrebound the Pacers by 17, but they also collected 17 offensive rebounds to Indiana's six. That's some nice symmetry. This was particularly important because neither team shot well (41.7 percent for the Wizards, 40.7 percent for the Pacers), so those extra possessions were critical.

15 - The number of seconds the Pacers held a lead in Game 1. Indiana took a 31-30 lead on a pair of Evan Turner free throws at the 8:30 mark in the second quarter, but Nene made a layup 15 seconds later to give the lead back to the Wizards, and Washington never looked back.

TWEETS OF THE NIGHT

VIDEO/GIF(s) OF THE NIGHT

You've already seen these, but they still win.

Wallblock1_medium

Wallblock

Wallpass

No, wait, I'm sorry. This wins.

FIRST HALF GAMETHREAD COMMENT OF THE NIGHT

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SECOND HALF GAMETHREAD COMMENT OF THE NIGHT

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GAME RECAP COMMENT(s) OF THE NIGHT

FIRST HALF GAMETHREAD ROLL CALL

# Commenter # Comments
1 DCrez 48
2 TheBackCourt 44
3 tw10 40
4 qthaballa 40
5 Rice2012 38
6 Brown Flash 34
7 Hands11 33
8 lobster11 32
9 njccc 31
10 imperialme 25
11 Ottoman-Empire 23
12 ZonkerBL 19
13 LRJ 18
14 HeyHeyDoctorJ 16
15 Finnarious 16
16 Joe.H 15
17 Astilita 15
18 Nickdogggmoneycash 15
19 dc_chilling 14
20 mr. 91 14
21 Justificati0n 14
22 capital city banana smushers 12
23 Tibia 11
24 okydoke... 10
25 faulcon 10
26 KurisuDevil 9
27 MC-Sneaks 9
28 nesby8 9
29 do.itch.big 9
30 ryanwadams 9
31 Wieters Wieners 8
32 TeamDC 7
33 Wizards Khalifa 7
34 DJWiz 7
35 Robert Crane 6
36 Mahlerh 6
37 DCnhokies 6
38 wizardsfan13 6
39 shiu413 6
40 henrylau11 6
41 spotless 5
42 abala 5
43 gray16 5
44 ExtraSpecialBitter 5
45 kyleMaroc 5
46 BealMVP4ever 5
47 satchmore 4
48 daca 4
49 Phemy. 4
50 Mike Prada 4
51 The Hoops Guru 4
52 ywlee22 4
53 t0Shihiro 3
54 sierradave 3
55 Yeti60 3
56 wizkidforlife 3
57 Discodc 3
58 Vinicius Coimbra 2
59 Jim America 2
60 little stevie colter 2
61 Max Zamphirescu 2
62 PolishHammer 2
63 novadada 2
64 elliotlevy2 2
65 jayxelo 2
66 eltacoman 2
67 Clutchcity202 2
68 RandyJuan 1
69 murtd1 1
70 Beniek 1
71 festivusball 1
72 Exile On Eutaw Street 1
73 diplomaniac 1
74 RCpige 1
75 chn 1
76 tengis 1
77 Big Spoon 1
78 TeacupOrTheOcean 1
79 HijackedD 1
80 Nubboi 1
81 Endless Paradise 1
82 Hulk_07 1
83 DCPerspective 1
84 KB5 1
85 Verycooldude9 1
86 wjb1492 1
87 BM22 1
88 tarheel723 1
89 TopHeavyHookjaw 1
90 PAClark11

1

SECOND HALF GAMETHREAD ROLL CALL

# Commenter # Comments
1 qthaballa 82
2 Rice2012 64
3 satchmore 60
4 ZonkerBL 54
5 tw10 52
6 BealMVP4ever 51
7 TheBackCourt 49
8 Ottoman-Empire 48
9 lobster11 46
10 LRJ 34
11 DCrez 31
12 George Templeton 30
13 abala 28
14 KurisuDevil 25
15 njccc 24
16 Finnarious 23
17 wizkidforlife 22
18 Astilita 18
19 novadada 17
20 Jim America 17
21 ryanwadams 17
22 zindallas 16
23 Justificati0n 15
24 Hands11 14
25 imperialme 13
26 DCnhokies 12
27 MC-Sneaks 11
28 caps&skins 10
29 ywlee22 10
30 hscer 10
31 eltacoman 9
32 HeyHeyDoctorJ 9
33 Mahlerh 7
34 mr. 91 7
35 capital city banana smushers 7
36 Tibia 7
37 Big Spoon 6
38 nesby8 5
39 Wizards Khalifa 5
40 Brown Flash 5
41 kyleMaroc 5
42 TheHogHouse 5
43 TeamDC 5
44 t0Shihiro 4
45 Discodc 4
46 tengis 4
47 Robert Crane 4
48 Nickdogggmoneycash 4
49 henrylau11 4
50 shiu413 4
51 Rook6980 3
52 jazzy1 3
53 spanishfalcon 3
54 DJWiz 3
55 Wieters Wieners 3
56 Verycooldude9 3
57 hotplate 2
58 ExtraSpecialBitter 2
59 N4Norman 2
60 bol'n47 2
61 RCpige 2
62 ThePGPhenomenon 2
63 The Hoops Guru 2
64 Joe.H 2
65 jrhooo 2
66 WASwizardsfan671 2
67 Rhamm21 2
68 kerrakpo 1
69 DCPerspective 1
70 LeHalfrican 1
71 wync 1
72 thewiz06 1
73 SladeKillah 1
74 EarlBoykinsII 1
75 Phemy. 1
76 John Wall Stan 1
77 Krobify 1
78 daca 1
79 Kevin Kraczkowski 1
80 faulcon 1
81 Nubboi 1
82 House of Guards 1
83 HughGR 1
84 wizardsfan13 1
85 Yeti60 1
86 EmilyB 1
87 Koperro 1
88 jackjowers3 1
89 ATrueNigerian 1
90 Grevey's Angel 1
91 RattlerinMD 1
92 jarem 1

In This Stream

Wizards vs. Pacers, NBA Playoffs 2014 Game 1: Stifling D carries Washington to 102-96 win

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