Thomas heads to sister’s funeral after Celtics beat Bulls

“It’s always great to go against another great point guard”, Wall said.

“Whenever he has that look in his eye. you could just tell he was locked in”, Beal said after Wall scored 42 in Friday night’s win. “He was ready to go”. Dwyane Wade has enjoyed a storied National Basketball Association career, but the wily veteran was not up to the task in game six, scoring just two points on one of nine shooting in 19 minutes of action.

Utah Jazz forward Joe Johnson (6) shoots as Los Angeles Clippers forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (12) defends during the first half in Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Friday, April 28, 2017, in Salt Lake City. They’re staring at another big challenge, trying to slow Wall and the Wizards. Wizards players wore black to a “funeral game” that they won in January. “Me and Brad led the way. We didn’t have it tonight so I do understand”. “We didn’t want to give them any life and we were a focused group and we were enjoying the moment”.

As a senior, he averaged 7.7 points, 4.2 assists, and 3.8 rebounds as a senior.

“I think it’s just two teams playing hard, and there’s a lot of guys on their end that play hard, play nasty, play feisty, and I think we have some guys like that”, said Celtics forward Jae Crowder, who’s been a featured player in numerous Wizards incidents over the past two seasons. And while Butler returning is more likely than not, management also must weigh him possibly being in line for a designated-player exception that would call for five years, $200-plus million when he’s nearing 30.

Boston now faces a Washington Wizards team that rebuffed the Atlanta Hawks’ efforts to shift momentum by going small. It’s far too early to say what exactly Friday night in Chicago will mean for the top-seeded Celtics, but a sense of a team coming together under unfathomable circumstances may prove to be the turning point in a season that a week ago appeared hanging by a thread.

The season series between the teams, even at 2-2 (both teams winning their two home games), featured all kinds of rudeness, some of it even threatening to pour off the court – as members of the Boston police stood in the hallway between the locker rooms after one game.

Jimmy Butler led Chicago with 23 points. It was no close, or back and forth game either. Smart got a technical foul for jawing, while Wall was ejected after being assessed a flagrant two foul.

The Wizards shot the ball exceptionally well in the half.

Atlanta finished with 22 turnovers, including seven by Kent Bazemore.

Despite dropping a 20-plus point lead, the Wizards seemed to gain necessary momentum on the road.

Game 7* May 15 at Boston, 5 p.m.

“Those guys play very, very hard and we do as well”, Crowder said.

“I definitely became a fan of Rajon as the season went on”.

Washington’s Markieff Morris added 17 points and eight rebounds and Bojan Bogdanovic came off the bench to score 10. Who’s the X-factor? Will Gerald Green continue to start? One of the most explosive scorers of his era missed a fast-break dunk in Game 1 that had Twitter trolls calling for his immediate retirement. The veteran struggled throughout the night, hitting on only 1 of 10 from the field.

All four players received technicals.

But they remain organizationally aligned to, yes, getting younger and more athletic.

Washington has not reached the conference final since drafting Wall with the first overall pick in 2010. The Hawks slipped to 48-34 last season and lost in the second round.