Wizards vs. Cavaliers

• Mike Wise of The Washington Post: "From the visitors' locker room came a chant, impromptu, rumbling beneath the Quicken Loans Arena stands, growing louder with each refrain. 'TOUGH JUICE! TOUGH JUICE! TOUGH JUICE!' Caron Butler's teammates kept bounding up and down without him, chanting the nickname bestowed upon the Wizards' all-star three years ago by his coach, Eddie Jordan, who had grown tired of coaching soft players who couldn't finish games. When Butler was finished with his TNT interview on Wednesday night he ran down an almost-empty corridor. After the most implausible victory of this Wizards era, he flexed his pectorals and screamed: 'D.C., STAND UP!! D.C., STAND UP!!'"
• Michael Wilbon of The Washington Post: "Not everybody on the Wizards is a talker. Caron Butler is a doer. Antawn Jamison, even on a bad shooting night, is a doer. Facing elimination on the road, with Gilbert Arenas sitting on the bench, Butler and Jamison took control of the team before the game in the locker room. They told their teammates, essentially, to shut up and play. Wonder of wonders, the Wizards did just that on Wednesday night. Mouths shut for the most part, the Wizards protected the ball, made smart decisions, and played with more poise over the final two minutes to pull out what most of us would call an improbable Game 5 victory over the Cavaliers."
• Patrick McManamon of The Akron Beacon-Journal: "LeBron James is a wonderful player, probably the best in the NBA. There are times when the ball needs to be in his hands, and when the Cavs need to run the play Delonte West described as 'everybody get out of the way and let LeBron do his thing.' But not every time. And especially not every time starting when the Cavs have a five-point lead in a series-clinching game with 1:47 left. At that point, the Cavs had everything in line. They had the ball, ahead by five, at home, with the crowd as loud as it had been all game."
• Jodie Valade of The Plain Dealer: "Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas took a permanent place on the bench Wednesday after finally yielding to his injured left knee and calling it a season. But even if he was on the bench, he vowed he was not going to be like Cavaliers guard Damon Jones. That is, he was not going to be issuing the kind of non-stop chatter the ever-loquacious Jones does before the game ... during the game ... and after the game. Though Jones doesn't get much playing time -- he has a total of 11 minutes in the series against the Wizards -- he impacts the game plenty with his constant talking to teammates and opposing players."

Hawks vs. Celtics 

• Mark Bradley of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "A strange series saw a return to relative normalcy Wednesday night. The NBA's best team played like the NBA's best team. The Hawks acted as if they weren't sure they deserved to be tied with the NBA's best team after four playoff games, and now they aren't. Maybe asking the Hawks to beat Boston three times in five days was too much, but the underdogs did nothing to make Games 3 and 4 seem a new world order. In Game 5 they were outscored by 17 baskets and beaten by 25 points."
• Sekou Smith of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Hawks rookie center Al Horford took the news of Kevin Durant winning the NBA Rookie of the Year award in stride. His coaches and teammates weren't nearly as understanding before Wednesday's Game 5 against Boston in their first-round playoff series. 'It's a travesty and it's not right,' Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. 'He should have shared it, if not gotten it outright. And I don't want to hear about us not being on TV or anything like that. It doesn't matter. It's what this kid has done for this team.'"
• D. Orlando Ledbetter of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Hawks point guard Mike Bibby may have provided the needed push to end the franchise's playoff drought. But in the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against Boston, he has yet to deliver a mega-game. The 10-year veteran, acquired from Sacramento in February, was kept in check again and heckled relentlessly for his troubles in Game 5."
• Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe: "It has been replayed again and again. It might be the best 'Saturday Night Live' skit of them all. Jon Lovitz, playing Mike Dukakis, debates Dana Carvey, playing George Bush. Listening to a particularly hideous Bush ramble, Lovitz looks into the camera and says, 'I can't believe I'm losing to this guy!' That's how this Celtics-Hawks playoff series feels to me. I can't believe the Celtics ever lost to these guys. I can't believe the Hawks knotted the series in Atlanta. I can't believe the Celtics went into last night's game facing a 'must-win.' I can't believe they put any doubts in our minds. I can't believe the series isn't over yet."
• Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald: "There was no talk on this night about hand gestures being gang-related, no talk about fines being levied by the NBA's various deans of discipline. Pierce, instead, was a one-man gang in the first quarter, scoring 10 of his game-high 22 points in what would be a systematic, 110-85 dismantling of the Hawks that sends this series back to Atlanta with the Celtics a victory away from advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals. ... Pierce likes to talk. And he's good at it. He's lively and he's personable, and he speaks about the game and his game with passion. That he didn't talk last night was a gesture in and of itself, if you know what we mean."

Sixers vs. Pistons 

• Marc Narducci of The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Center Samuel Dalembert had a hair-raising experience he hoped would loosen up and motivate the 76ers. The motivation part didn't work out so well, because the Sixers lost, 98-81, to the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday, the day Dalembert unveiled his Mohawk haircut. So now Dalembert lacks some hair and the Sixers lack any margin for error. Trailing the best-of-seven series by three games to two, they face elimination tonight in Game 6 at the Wachovia Center. The haircut 'is just part of my personality,' Dalembert said. 'If we would have won, they would have talked about the haircut bringing us luck.'"
• Mark Kram of the Philadelphia Daily News: "This is a team that was going nowhere in November. And look at where it is: In a tight playoff series that few could have imagined would come to pass. 'What I have to do is share the experience I have had as a player and as a coach and go from there,' said Cheeks, a veteran of 133 playoff games as a player, including the Sixers' title run in 1983, and 10 games as Portland's coach. 'It's a one-game series for us. We have to win or we're out. We have to do the things we've been doing the whole [season], but do them better. And do them with more urgency.'"
• Chris McCosky of The Detroit News: "One thing is certain: The Pistons won't lack for a sense of urgency. They know the Magic, the potential second-round opponent, is home waiting. 'It's definitely important (to close it out now),' Rasheed Wallace said. 'They (the Magic) are resting up their horse (Dwight Howard) and trying to get ready. We definitely need to get this Game 6.' The Pistons also know a Game 7, even at home, would be no gimme against a team as resilient as the 76ers have been all season."
• A. Sherrod Blakely of Booth Newspapers: "Since the 2003-2004 championship season, the Pistons are 11-3 in games in which they can eliminate an opponent. In those 11 wins, the average margin of victory has been by 12.5 points. And of the three losses, two came during their second-round series last season against Chicago, a series the Pistons wound up winning four games to two. Despite an impressive track record in such games, and the fact that Detroit has won the last two in this series with stretches of dominant play, Saunders anticipates Thursday's game won't be any easier than the first five. 'We know they're going to come out and they're going to play hard,' Saunders said. 'Because they always play hard.'"

Jazz vs. Rockets 

• Ross Siler of The Salt Lake Tribune: "For a team that has won 12 playoff games the last two years, the Jazz are largely new to pressure situations. Make no mistake, they will face one in Friday's Game 6. If they can't finish off the Rockets at EnergySolutions Arena, a building where they have gone 38-5 this season, the Jazz would face a return to Houston for Game 7 on Sunday amid talk of a historic collapse."
• Dick Harmon of the Deseret News: "Rafer Alston. The return of Houston's point guard is probably the biggest reason the Rockets are hanging around for Friday's Game 6 with the Utah Jazz. He doesn't play the first two games and Utah wins twice in the Toyota Center. He returns, hits big 3-pointers to jump start Houston in Game 3 and 5, and suddenly the Jazz are clawing to survive. Alston and his shot -- Utah's kryptonite."
• Steve Campbell of the Houston Chronicle: "Shane Battier wants a beer. Desperately. Not for breakfast. Not for lunch. Not to wash down dinner or to drown any present or future sorrows. Battier is counting on an overpowering craving for a nice, smooth, satisfying cold one in the late hours of Friday night in Utah. He wants to toast a job well done, to salute his Rockets teammates. He'll even cordially invite Utah Jazz fans to come and cry in their watered-down beer. 'It's not like we haven't tasted what it feels like to have a celebratory beer after a game in Salt Lake, which you usually do, because it's so hard to get in Salt Lake,' Battier said. 'So you enjoy that one.'"

Suns

• Paola Boivin of The Arizona Republic: "Coach Mike D'Antoni was asked if he wanted to return. He wouldn't say. Amaré Stoudemire was asked what kind of coach D'Antoni was, and he said 'pretty good.' 'Great as far as practice scheduling and offensive awareness.' Huh? Great as far as practice scheduling? There's a vote of confidence for you. Here's a team that has won 54 or more regular-season games in each of the coach's four full seasons -- something 73 percent of the league couldn't do this year, by the way -- and both sides act like they want to part ways. I'm sorry, but that's messed up. Both sides appear to be suffering from the 'grass is always greener' affliction."
• Mark Heisler of the Los Angeles Times: "Here's the bottom line: The Shaq trade did work as the Suns proved again, leading by 16 points in Game 1 and by 14 in Game 2 in San Antonio ... before the Spurs stole both back. (They did it by hacking Shaq, who went 32 for 64 from the free-throw line, but that's an abomination for another day.) The problem was, the trade just didn't work well enough. ... Worst of all, with so many young powers on the rise (Lakers, Hornets, Jazz, Trail Blazers), the Suns, like the Mavericks who traded for Jason Kidd, just got a lot older."
• Michael Wallace of The Miami Herald: "How it has grown childish. How scorned lovers have more compassion for an abusive ex than apparently some -- including so-called objective media types -- have for the Big Declining. O'Neal and the Phoenix Suns were ousted in five games against the defending champion San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs, giving those from Camps 'I-told-you-so' and 'Serves-him-right' reason to toast the demise of the Diesel. Drink up. But was going to offer a shot of reality to those tipping Hater-aide-filled glasses. Was going to point out how Steve Nash had as much to do with the Suns downfall as O'Neal."

Mavericks 

• Randy Galloway of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Here's what I love about Avery Johnson: Even to the bitter end, knowing his job was on the line, he took no spit from any owner or any player, particularly a stupid weasel like Josh Howard. Excuse me, but the Averys of the world can inhabit my planet anytime."
• Tim Cowlishaw of The Dallas Morning News: "Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson praised his work, and Avery Johnson said there was absolutely no bitterness about his dismissal as Mavericks coach the day after their playoff elimination. Let's be honest about this thing for a second. What looked like a perfect marriage barely three years ago ended in a very ugly manner Wednesday. And whatever happens next, it won't put the Mavericks back on the level of championship contenders."
• Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News : "Jason Kidd, who clearly wasn't always comfortable running Johnson's system, echoed Nowitzki's sentiment. 'Whoever the coach may be, you want to play to your strengths,' Kidd said. 'There's a lot of successful coaches out there ... Whoever [we] bring in, we feel we have a great opportunity to win because we have the pieces. It's just a matter of getting it done.' In hiring a new coach, the Mavericks not only want to get the best strategist they can, but they also must make sure he's a good fit with the players and management."
• Jan Hubbard of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Nowitzki, however, did not simply blame others. He stated, in a way that seemed sincere yet sounded outrageous to everyone listening, that he's not even sure he'll be back. And he was talking about the possibility of Cuban trading him. 'None of the players are safe, really, as far as I'm concerned,' Nowitzki said. 'The way we played, we were a first-round exit. I don't know if just a new coach can fix it all. I'm sure there will be some player movements. To me, the way we [played], nobody should be safe. All the players should be worried.'"
• Brian Davis of The Dallas Morning News: "Josh Howard hasn't jeopardized his NBA career with one bad playoff series. But considering his questionable behavior, Mavericks officials might be wondering whether Howard is someone they want representing their franchise. When asked Wednesday if there was anything he'd like to do over again, Howard said, 'Hmmm, some things. But overall, you only live once. You've got to keep your head up and stay positive.'"

Hornets vs. Spurs

• John DeShazier of The Times-Picayune: "Now, the Hornets hold the hammer. Now, they get to swing. 'We're not going to go into this series, or any other series, expecting to lose,' David West said. 'We expect to win, we expect to play well, we expect to do the right things to give ourselves a chance to win.' The athletic gospel, as penned or popularized by incomparable smack talker Ric Flair, states that if you want to be The Man, you've got to beat The Man. San Antonio is The Man. The Hornets want to be. Now, the Hornets get a chance to see if they can be."
• Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: "Kurt Thomas did not arrive in San Antonio with the same fanfare that greeted Shaquille O'Neal in Phoenix, Jason Kidd in Dallas or Pau Gasol in Los Angeles. Still, the Spurs wouldn't be headed to the second round of the playoffs without him. 'Having him here has really helped our team,' coach Gregg Popovich said after the Spurs jettisoned Phoenix in the first round. 'We couldn't have got through this series without him. We couldn't have gotten it done.'"

League-Wide

• David Waldstein of The Star-Ledger: "The longer Donnie Walsh waits to choose a head coach for the Knicks, the more experienced options he will have to choose from. Avery Johnson joined the list of available coaches when he was fired as head coach of the Mavericks yesterday. In Phoenix, Mike D'Antoni's future is also in doubt. On the surface, Johnson would seem a more likely choice because as a defense-oriented disciplinarian, he would provide exactly what the Knicks have been lacking the last few years. ... One rival executive, who asked not to be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak on the subject, said recently that the longer Walsh waits, the more it looks like he wants to see who else will become available."
• Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times: "There are people in this town, people tired of paying $56 for an average ticket, who want John Paxson's hide. As yet, I'm not among them, but I do hope he was awakened Wednesday by the NBA's version of a cattle prod. What has been a deliberate, sleepy coaching search suddenly takes on urgency that, depending on his response, could make or break his future. Not only is Avery Johnson available, but Mike D'Antoni could be, too, left to dangle in Phoenix while his boss, Steve Kerr, figures out how to make a scapegoat of a popular, accomplished coach. Both men carry starpower, not to mention enough Western Conference cachet to reinvigorate weary Bulls fans and command the attention of languid, underachieving players."
• Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News: "If image is indeed everything, then Lakers guard Derek Fisher believes Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics and DeShawn Stevenson of the Washington Wizards deserved to be fined $25,000 apiece Monday for what the NBA termed 'menacing gestures' toward opponents last week. Fisher, the president of the players' association, acknowledged the fines were 'harsh' but he also said, 'there have been some examples of guys stepping beyond that line. That's not something that is good for our game and good for our players.' ... 'The tough part is when you have 450-plus guys between the ages of 19 and 37, that's a pretty huge demographic to get everyone to walk alike and think alike and dress alike and talk alike and respect the game alike, that will never happen,' he said."
• Jim Alexander of The Press-Enterprise: "Yes, the Lakers got out of the first round for the first time in four years. But this was practically a gimme. Denver may have won 50 games in the regular season, but the Nuggets, in what has become a 'Springtime in the Rockies' ritual, were once again exposed as an immature, emotionally fragile group. The next test should be tougher."