NBA Playoffs Results

vs(From the Associated Press) - Relying on young and old, the Milwaukee Bucks find themselves one win from an upset that looked improbable just a week ago.

No one is more stunned than the Atlanta Hawks, who figured they would have things all wrapped up by now.

Brandon Jennings scored 25 points, Kurt Thomas drew a crucial charging foul against Joe Johnson and the Bucks stunned the home team with a 14-0 run late in the game, beating the favored Hawks 91-87 on Wednesday night for a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Milwaukee, appearing in the playoffs for the first time since 2006, responded like the seasoned postseason team after getting blown out in the first two games. The third-seeded Hawks, planning for a long run in their third straight playoff appearance, better figure out a way to win on the road or this season will be over much sooner than they expected.

Game 6 is Friday night in Milwaukee.

“The pressure’s not on us,” Jennings said.

Milwaukee center Andrew Bogut is watching the playoffs with a cast on his right hand after taking a gruesome fall late in the regular season, but the 20-year-old Jennings keeps stepping up big with darting moves to the hoop and timely jumpers. The rookie scored 12 straight points early and clinched the victory with two free throws.

Joining him in a duo for the ages is the 37-year-old Thomas, one of the league’s oldest players. Bogut’s replacement doesn’t show up much on the stat sheet—he took only one shot and failed to score—but he came up with perhaps the biggest play of the game when he stepped out to take a charge from Johnson with 2:15 remaining, the Atlanta star’s sixth foul.

“I thought when Joe Johnson came out of the game,” Jennings said, “we had a chance to win it.”

The Hawks appeared to be in control leading 82-73 after Josh Smith’s long jumper with 4:10 remaining. Milwaukee scored the next 14 points while Atlanta was missing seven straight shots. Even though Al Horford finally broke the drought with 19 seconds remaining, then banked in a 3-pointer from the top of the key to finish with 25 points and 11 rebounds, it wasn’t enough to make up for a total collapse.

“This is incredible,” said Jamal Crawford, who had an awful game one day after winning the NBA’s Sixth Man Award. “We had the game won. It just slipped away from us.”

Crawford’s night ended in appropriate fashion—a desperation 3-pointer that missed badly and left him sprawled on the court. He finished 4 of 18 from the field for 11 points. Johnson wasn’t much better, making 6 of 16 for 13 points before fouling out for the first time this season.

“It was a terrible loss,” Johnson said. “It was embarrassing.”

The Bucks ran out the final seconds and celebrated with chest bumps in the center of Philips Arena, while the Hawks straggled to the locker room, hearing nothing but boos from a sellout crowd of 19,304.

“Bye-bye, Woody!” someone shouted at Atlanta coach Mike Woodson, whose contract is up at the end of a season that now finds itself in one loss-and-done mode.

“It’s a tough loss,” Woodson said, “but it’s a seven-game series.”

Atlanta cruised through the first two games at home and fully expected to win at least one game in Milwaukee, which would have set them up to clinch at home in Game 5.

Instead, it’s the gritty Bucks who are on the verge of moving on to face waiting Orlando in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“We feel great,” Thomas said. “Even after the first two games, we felt very confident we would go home and get the job done.”

Milwaukee shot 41 percent from the field but simply outworked an Atlanta team that seemed stunned more and more to find itself in a tough series. John Salmons added 19 points for the Bucks and Luke Ridnour had 15.

“We know we didn’t play well,” Salmons said. “It was an ugly game.”

But it sure looked pretty at the end. The Bucks continually drove to the hoop in the fourth quarter, drawing foul after foul and hitting 15 of 18 free throws. Stunningly, Atlanta never got to the line in the final period.

Marvin Williams had 22 points for the Hawks, who couldn’t overcome the dismal showings by their two leading scorers, Johnson and Crawford.

The Hawks appeared to be taking control in the third quarter with the sort of play that had been missing since the first two games in Atlanta.

Johnson took things into his own hands, driving right around Thomas for a dunk that broke a 50-50 tie and sparked a 17-4 run that took less than 4 minutes. Johnson also hit a couple of jumpers during the spurt, and he got plenty of support from Horford and Williams.

Horford scored six points, including a couple of ferocious dunks set up by passes from Mike Bibby. After the second jam, Bibby backpedaled down the court with a smile on his face, the Hawks appearing to have fun for the first time all night.

Williams scored the other five points in Atlanta’s outburst, including a three-point play that began at the other end with a turnover by Salmons.

The Bucks just wouldn’t go away, even though both replacement centers, Thomas and Gadzuric, ran into foul trouble. Thomas picked up his fourth less than 4 minutes into the third quarter, while Gadzuric was whistled for his fifth before the period was done.

Unlike Johnson, they both managed to make it to the finish.

The Hawks’ frustration showed early.

Zaza Pachulia sent Jennings flying with a hard whack late in the first quarter, drawing an intentional foul. The 6-foot-1 Jennings hopped off the court as though he wanted to go at the 6-11 Pachulia, but Thomas and the officials stepped in to push the rookie guard away. Ridnour jawed a bit with Pachulia before things calmed down.

Early in the second, Johnson doled out another hard foul on Ridnour, who tumbled to the court after taking a bit of a shove with the forearm.

The Bucks dished out some shots of their own. Thomas stepped out to set a pick on Smith, who tumbled to the court and rolled over with a gash over his right eye. He headed to the locker room to get five stitches, but returned to the court late in the period with a bandage covering the wound.



vs(From the Associated Press) - Carmelo Anthony hung out the big “Help Wanted” sign after Denver’s last game and he got plenty of responses.

The Denver Nuggets avoided elimination with a 116-102 victory over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night when Anthony’s supporting cast finally came up big.

“I think tonight we responded as a unit to the challenge at hand,” said Anthony, who had complained after the Nuggets’ loss Sunday night that he couldn’t beat the Jazz by himself, comments he later clarified to show he meant everybody, including himself, had to do more.

And they did.

J.R. Smith found his long-range touch. Chris Andersen and Johan Petro filled in admirably when center Nene went out with a potentially serious knee injury in the first half. Kenyon Martin’s 18 points were the most he’s scored in the playoffs since 2005. Aaron Afflalo was perfect from the floor, and reserve Ty Lawson provided a spark with his speed.

“Everybody stepped up tonight and did their part,” Anthony said. “With Nene going down early, ‘Frenchie’ came in and stepped up, ‘Bird’ played the way he is supposed to be playing. Everybody played their role tonight. That’s how we won.”

The Nuggets, trying to become the first team in four years to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the playoffs, sent the series back to Salt Lake City for Game 6 on Friday night despite losing Nene to a sprained left knee.

“We know it’s going to be a tough game up there, tough arena, Utah fans are pretty tough,” Nuggets acting coach Adrian Dantley said. “But we’re glad we did what we did tonight.”

Anthony had 26 points and 11 rebounds, Chauncey Billups had 21 points, and Smith made four big 3-pointers among his 17 points for Denver, which won a game in which it was facing elimination for the first time since Game 6 of the 1994 Western Conference semifinals against Utah.

The Nuggets had lost eight straight elimination games, six since Anthony joined the team in 2003.

After infighting and insults dominated their locker room in the aftermath of their two losses at Salt Lake City, the Nuggets were a much more cohesive group even in the face of another outstanding performance by Utah’s Deron Williams, who declared after shootaround that he was the best point guard in the NBA right now.

The Nuggets won’t disagree.

After watching him average 27.6 points and 12.0 assists over the first four games of the series, the Nuggets put Billups on Williams from the start instead of Afflalo.

Williams said nothing would change no matter who was guarding him, and he was right, getting 34 points and 10 assists before fouling out in the final minute. He became the first player in NBA history to register 20 or more points and double-digit assists in five games to begin a playoff series.

“We played good defense on him,” Dantley insisted, “but he’s just a great basketball player.”

Carlos Boozer had 25 points and 16 boards for Utah. But backup big man Kyrylo Fesenko, who had played so well in the absence of Andrei Kirilenko (calf) and Mehmet Okur (Achilles’ tendon) for the last three games, all Utah wins, finished with three points and six rebounds Wednesday night.

The Nuggets were finally able to capitalize once again on their athleticism and quickness.

“They were a lot more alive, they went after the ball a little harder than we did,” Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. “The players off the bench gave them a big lift. Their bench people killed us.”

Williams backed up his proclamations about being the top point guard in the NBA in the closing minutes of the first half when the Nuggets looked like they were about to take control early.

His two 3-pointers and two free throws highlighted a 12-4 run that sent the Jazz into the locker room with a 52-50 lead.

But he said the Jazz were outplayed and outhustled in the first few minutes of the second half and he put the blame on his shoulders for letting his team lose focus.

Nene was hurt with 5 minutes left in the first half. He was working under the basket when Boozer’s left leg slammed into his left knee.

“I don’t know how severe his injury is, but if he doesn’t play we just have to play without him,” Dantley said. “Utah, they went without two players. We just have to play without him.”

With Nene out, Andersen scored 10 points and grabbed seven boards and Petro chipped in four points and six boards.

“When he went out they picked themselves up,” Sloan said. “They seemed to get a lot stronger.”

Sloan said he wasn’t concerned that the injuries to Kirilenko and Okur were catching up to his short-handed roster.

“I would if they were about 40 years old,” he cracked. “I don’t have anybody that old so they should be in good enough shape to be able to play.”

One thing the Jazz don’t want is to see is the Pepsi Center again in a Game 7.

“It’s very important to get this over with on Friday,” Williams said. “But it’s not going to be easy.”