Washington, D.C–
Story By: Richard Thomas
Photos By: Sol Tucker
They gave Paul Pierce one more chance to be a hero, tonight just wasn’t the night he was able to be a superhero. The shot that would have sent the game to overtime fell short and the Hawks escaped with a Game 4 victory, 106-101, sending the series back to Atlanta for Game 5 on Wednesday.
Jeff Teague scored 26 points, Paul Millsap added 19 points, six assists and five rebounds, and Al Horford had 18 points and 10 rebounds as three of Atlanta’s four All-Stars played more a full team role and looked like the team that was the Number 1 seed coming into the playoffs.
Bradley Beal led the way for the Wizards with 34 points, a career playoff high for him. Beal spoke after the game about the shot that Pierce took that would have tied the game with 8.5 seconds remaining.
“I thought it was going in. That open one’s always the hardest one to make,” said Beal.
Without Wall, who missed his 3rd game with the fractured hand, players such as Marcin Gortat have struggled to get things going offensively. Gortat at times looked frustrated with his play tonight holding his hands over his head multiple times that sent the Hawks to the line. He finished the game with just 3 points on a 1 for 7 effort from the field.
“It felt good just to see how passionate the guys were and how hungry we were at the beginning of the game. That let me know we were here to play,” said Teague, who hit a key 3 with 72 seconds left to get the margin to seven points.
