Two days after becoming the hero of the Washington Wizards, Paul Pierce was the goat on a missed 3-point shot in a Game 4 loss to Atlanta.
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The Washington Wizards fell to the Atlanta Hawks 106-101 to even out the Eastern Conference Semifinals at 2-2.
The Wizards struggled from the get-go, being outscored by Atlanta in each of the first two quarters as C Marcin Gortat and G Ramon Sessions failed to make any impact with their FG accuracy woes. The Hawks led the Wizards by as much as 10 points at various points during the first half which the Wizards were only able to cut into thanks to great plays like this slam dunk from F Nene Hilario:
In the third quarter Wizards G Bradley Beal was able to reduce the deficit to three on a beautiful three-point shot, but the team failed to capitalize as Atlanta went on a scoring spree:
Beal finished the day with a game-best 34-points, but missed on 14 of his 25 FG attempts. The 16 team turnovers certainly didn’t help as the Wizards’ accuracy trailed the Hawks in all categories.
In the fourth quarter it looked like Hawks G Jeff Teague had sealed the win with this three-point shot to give them a 7-point lead with just 72 seconds left on the clock:
But the Wizards had a little bit of magic left and managed to cut that deficit to just three on a final possession, where they gave the ball to veteran F Paul Pierce – the same man who had made the game-winning shot in Game 3.
Pierce took the three-point attempt but it bounced off the rim:
The Hawks would regain the ball and seal the loss for the Wizards, tying the series at 2-2 with Game 5 set to be played in Atlanta and Game 6 back in Washington.
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