Bucks Avoid Elimination With Win Over Bulls, NBA Roundup

The Milwaukee Bucks insisted this playoff series was about more than just showing up, taking their beating and learning from it. They wanted to hang around. And that's exactly what they are doing.

Michael Carter-Williams had 22 points and nine assists, Khris Middleton scored 21 points and the Bucks avoided elimination again with a 94-88 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Monday night in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series. With a 3-2 lead, the Bulls will try to close it out again Thursday at Milwaukee. But the Bucks aren't going quietly after dropping the first three games.

"A lot of people look at it as house money," Bucks coach Jason Kidd said. "You can always talk about the future, but we don't. We don't really understand what the future holds for us. We've got to stay in the present. This is what this team has done all year. They haven't looked at the future. They've just stayed in the present.

"They've worked their tails off and they've put themselves in this position to make [it] a series."

They took Game 4 on a last-second layup by Jerryd Bayless and withstood several pushes by the Bulls in the fourth quarter of this one.

Nets 120, Hawks 115 (OT)

Deron Williams finally delivered the game that's expected of him, and he wasn't going to let the Nets lose it. And after he finished carrying them into a 2-2 tie with the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed, the guy who had been being beaten up physically on the court and by fans and media off it knew how important his performance was.

"We really needed to get this one to stay in the series," he said, "and so it was definitely one of my better games this year for sure and probably as a Net."

Williams rebounded from two dismal games by tying a playoff career high with 35 points, and Brooklyn pulled out a 120-115 overtime victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night in Game 4.

Trail Blazers 99, Grizzlies 92

After the final buzzer of their Game 4 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night, the Portland Trail Blazers all gathered in a huddle at midcourt and raised their clasped hands skyward. All of them were smiling. Portland had avoided elimination from the playoffs with a 99-92 victory over Memphis.

"I think since the last game when we went 0-3, the big thing we've been talking about is having heart and playing with pride -- and just not being swept," said Blazers guard Damian Lillard, who had 32 points. "Everybody's always saying, 'Nobody's ever done it, coming back from 0-3.' We didn't want to focus on that. We wanted to focus on just today, and doing everything we had to do to give ourselves a chance to keep playing."

Monday, April 27 Scoreboard

Brooklyn 120, Atlanta 115 (OT)
EASTERN CONFERENCE 1ST ROUND - GAME 4

Milwaukee 94, Chicago 88
EASTERN CONFERENCE 1ST ROUND - GAME 5

Portland 99, Memphis 92
WESTERN CONFERENCE 1ST ROUND - GAME 4

Tuesday, April 28 Schedule (All Times Central)

Dallas at Houston, 7 p.m.
WESTERN CONFERENCE 1ST ROUND - GAME 5

San Antonio at Los Angeles, 9:30 p.m.
WESTERN CONFERENCE 1ST ROUND - GAME 5