NBA playoff scores 2015: Grizzlies eliminate Trail Blazers, Hawks take 3-2 lead

The Grizzlies beat the Blazers to set up a date with the Warriors, while the Hawks held off a furious Nets rally to take a 3-2 series lead.

by Jason Patt

Apr 30, 2015, 12:00 PM UTC

Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports

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NBA playoffs schedule and results: Hawks take 3-2 lead, Grizzlies advance

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As usual with the Memphis Grizzlies, their 99-93 Game 5 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers wasn't always pretty. But nobody does not pretty like the Grizzlies, and now they're heading to the second round to face the juggernaut known as the Golden State Warriors.

Playing once again without Mike Conley, the Grizzlies came out looking for a quick knockout by scoring the first 10 points of the game. That domination wasn't able to be sustained as Memphis' offense bogged down a bit and Portland finally woke up thanks to C.J. McCollum. The Grizzlies nearly ran away with the game again at the start of the second half, but McCollum brought the Blazers back to set up a hotly-contested fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter was when Memphis’ stingy defense made the difference. Sure, Portland scored 27 points in the final frame, but 12 of those points came in the final minute after the Grizzlies had already taken full control. With the game hanging in the balance earlier in the fourth, Memphis held Portland scoreless for more than four minutes, turning a one-point lead into a 10-point lead that essentially clinched the series.

To come up big down the stretch with Conley out had to feel good, and the Grizzlies got contributions from all over in the fourth quarter. Jeff Green and Nick Calathes had big buckets after struggling most of the night. Courtney Lee knocked down a big jumper. Marc Gasol helped ice the game at the line and Tony Allen played excellent defense.

Looking forward, Memphis really needs Conley against Golden State, on both ends of the floor. Offensively, Conley is the floor general and simply a far better scorer and distributor than either Calathes or Beno Udrih. Defensively, the Grizzlies need Conley to help guard the Splash Brothers. Allen will be counted on big time in that regard, but not having Conley would take away a key perimeter defender to hound those two sharpshooters. Imagining Udrih on Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson isn't pretty, but it's unclear if, or when, Conley will be available again. His face certainly doesn't look good at the moment.

If Conley can't play, expect even more of Gasol and Zach Randolph down low. The Randolph-Draymond Green matchup is going to be a brawl, and it'll be fascinating to see if the smaller Green can handle the pounding over the course of a series. It should be fun, although it would be more fun if Conley is available.

3 other things we learned

Al Horford, Jeff Teague find a way: It was happening again. Prior to Game 5, the Brooklyn Nets had outscored the Atlanta Hawks every game in the fourth quarter. In Game 5, the Nets scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter to turn a 12-point deficit into a three-point deficit. The Hawks looked all out of sorts on both ends of the floor and appeared to be in serious danger of going down 3-2 heading back to Brooklyn.

But in winning time, Horford and Teague made the winning plays. Horford knocked down two key mid-range jumpers to answer Joe Johnson three-pointers, and Teague hit two daggers in the paint the help secure a 107-97 win, and 3-2 series lead. Horford, playing through a finger injury, finished with 20 points, 15 rebounds and five assists, while Teague had 20 points and eight assists.

C.J. McCollum is a player: The Blazers’ season may have come to an end on Wednesday night, but McCollum did all he could to make sure it wasn’t so. The second-year guard poured in a career-high 33 points, a number that also set a franchise playoff high for a reserve. He shot 12-of-20 overall and 7-of-11 from three, and his three-point barrage in the third quarter helped give Portland a brief lead.

McCollum really struggled in the first two games of the series, but he was brilliant in the last three, averaging nearly 26 points while shooting just less than 61 percent. This breakout bodes well for the future, and the 23-year-old should be a key player off the Blazers’ bench next season, or perhaps even a starter, depending on how the offseason shakes out.

The Nets’ fight is impressive: Nobody gave the Nets much of a chance against the top-seeded Hawks, but this series has been one of the most competitive of the first round. Brooklyn easily could have been blown out in several of these games in Atlanta, but it hasn’t happened.

The Nets were down 17 points after one quarter in Game 5, but they didn’t fold and got back into the game thanks to an unlikely hero in Alan Anderson. Jarrett Jack helped bring Brooklyn back in the fourth quarter, and while it wasn’t quite enough, the team deserves some credit for the effort.