NBA playoffs 2014: Wizards stun Bulls again, take 2-0 series lead

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

LAST NIGHT: Holy crap, The Wizards! Here’s our big next-day feature with blurbs on the young Wiz, the tired Bulls, Kyle Lowry and Drake going Lady MacBeth on his pantalones.

Chicago turned things around in the third period, allowing Washington to score just 14 points compared to their own 26. Things tightened up in the fourth, with Beal taking center stage in the final three minutes. The teams were tied, 91-91, in the final possession, but an aimless play after a timeout saw Beal taking an ill-advised fadeaway jumper from the right corner that forced the game to overtime.

Game 3 will be 8 p.m. ET Friday in Washington on ESPN. The Wizards lead the series, 2-0.

The Toronto and New York tabloids have been in rare form during this Raptors-Nets playoff series. Trash talk and tight play between the two teams have given them ample fodder. The Raps won Game 2 Tuesday night, so the Toronto Sun got to take the most recent pun swing for its Wednesday sports page:

You see, the Raptors mascot is very loosely based on the velociraptor, an extinct dinosaur species also loosely represented in the 1993 film Jurassic Park. The “assic” in “Jurassic” sounds a bit like “ass kick,” which is what the Raptors metaphorically did to the Nets Tuesday night. As payment for this pun explanation, please insert $5 USD or an equivalent check made out to SB Nation into your web browsing device.

Toronto evened the series with Brooklyn, 1-1, on Tuesday night, closing out the fourth quarter with a 36-point effort to grab the win at the Air Canada Centre, 100-95.

Game 3 is on Friday, Apr. 25 at 7 p.m. ET in Brooklyn and will air on ESPN 2. The series is tied, 1-1.

The eighth-seeded Hawks went into Bankers Life Fieldhouse and stunned the top-seeded Pacers in Game 1, using a huge third quarter to open up a big lead before cruising to victory in the fourth. One could argue “stunned” isn’t the most appropriate word to use based on Indiana’s play since the All-Star break, but it was still a bit surprising to see the Pacers play so poorly on their home floor to start the postseason.

After going down by as many as 13 points in the third quarter, the Wizards got their act together and stormed back to beat the Bulls in Game 1. Washington outscored Chicago 30-18 in the fourth quarter to shock the United Center crowd. The star of the game was an apparently very healthy Nene, who scored 24 points on 11-of-17 shooting, with much of his work coming against recently crowned Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah.

Game time: 9:30 p.m. ET

Location: United Center, Chicago, Ill.

Game time: 7:30 p.m. ET

Location: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario