What You Missed in the NBA Last Night

Here's a real quick wrap up of what you missed in the NBA last night, with stories from each team's local paper.

Cleveland failed to put the Gilbert Arenas-less Wizards away (Arenas is done for the year with a knee injury) losing 88-87. Caron Butler channeled the Caron Butler of UConn fame and racked up 32 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists to carry the Wizards. In typical NBA fashion the game had an ugly/dramatic ending with Butler driving to the rim (and taking an extra step to get there) to score the winning bucket with less than 4 seconds to go. Lebron pulled a similar move to try and win the game, drew contact but no foul, and had his shot rattle out.

In Washington, Mike Wilbon says silence is golden whereas over in Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Bill Livingston said the loss had a familiar aftertaste. Video highlights for those truly interested can be seen here.

The Hawks were road kill in this one as the Celtics basically over powered them on their way to a dominating 110-85 victory, giving them a 3-2 series lead. As avowed Boston haters, this game wasn't much fun to watch, the Celtics are clearly the superior team and it showed last night. Not even Mike Woodson's mustache was enough to save the Hawks, and it didn't help that Mike Bibby racked up a grand total of 6 points either. Over in Boston, the Herald says the Celtics made it look easy, and in Atlanta they want to know if the Hawks believe in themselves.