Hawks finish off Nets with Game 6 rout; Wizards up next

NEW YORK -- Being tied after four games of the first round brought out the best in the Atlanta Hawks.

And as they showed in delivering a devastating third-quarter knockout, their best was better than anyone else in the Eastern Conference this season.

Paul Millsap had 25 points, nine rebounds and six assists, and the Hawks finally finished off the Brooklyn Nets in six games, advancing to the East semifinals with a 111-87 victory Friday night.

"We believe," forward DeMarre Carroll said, "and we believe that when we are playing the right way, as you seen tonight, we can beat anybody."

Kyle Korver added 20 points and hit three of his six 3-pointers during a series-deciding run as the Hawks turned a six-point halftime lead into the only blowout of the series. The East's No. 1 seed has a quick turnaround before facing Washington on Sunday in its second-round opener.

"We didn't play that well the first three games. I didn't think we had our edge," Korver said. "I think coming here and losing two kind of woke us."

The Wizards, the No. 5 seed, swept Toronto in the first round.

Atlanta won the final two games and left no doubt about this one after beginning the second half with a 23-3 blitz that made it 74-48, opening as big a gap on the scoreboard as there was between the teams in the standings. The Hawks were 60-22 in the regular season, and the Nets were only 38-44 as the last team to qualify for the postseason, but Atlanta had outscored Brooklyn by just nine points through the first five games.

The Nets looked as if they would keep this one close after recovering from the Hawks' strong start, but Atlanta wouldn't let that happen.

Brook Lopez scored 19 points for the Nets, who had staved off first-round elimination with Game 6 victories in each of the two previous years. But a lethargic start to the third quarter ended any hopes of taking the series back to Atlanta on Sunday.

"We wanted to make the playoffs. We did, and we thought we put up a great effort against this team that's the best in the East," Nets guard Deron Williams said.

Williams had two turnovers that started Atlanta fast breaks in the opening minutes of the third as the Hawks started with an 8-0 spurt that made it 59-45. Williams then made a 3-pointer, but the Hawks ripped off the next 15 points, opening a 26-point lead midway through the period.

"You could just see they had the wave of momentum that they weren't going to let up," Nets coach Lionel Hollins said.

The Hawks won the East so handily after building a big cushion with their 17-0 January that they were able to give their starters plenty of rest down the stretch, although that might have contributed to them not clicking when the playoffs started.

A Nets team they beat four times by an average of 17.3 points during the regular season kept the first two games close and won the next two. But Atlanta pulled away late in Game 5 and came out clicking Friday.

Korver made three 3-pointers in the first quarter, and Carroll added two, including one with 1.4 seconds left that made it 36-23. The Hawks shot 13-of-18 (72 percent) in the period, went 5-of-7 from 3-point range and looked like the team that ran such precision offense for most of the season.

TIP-INS

Hawks: Coach Mike Budenholzer finished third in voting for executive of the year, which was won Friday by Golden State general manager Bob Myers. Budenholzer, who won coach of the year, has overseen basketball operations since general manager Danny Ferry's racially charged comments.

Nets: The Nets fell to 5-1 in Game 6 of first-round series. They beat Chicago in 2013 in a series they eventually lost, then topped Toronto last year before edging the Raptors in Game 7. ... Mirza Teletovic, who had sat out the previous two games after returning in Game 2 after recovering from blood clots that had sidelined him since January, played 9 scoreless minutes.

CLUTCH CARROLL

Carroll finished with 20 points, his fourth straight game with at least that many. He is the first Hawks player to do that since Jamal Crawford in 2011, and Hollins said he was the MVP of the series. "Oh man, that brings joy to me," Carroll said. "He was my first coach in the NBA."

IF AT FIRST

The team leading after the first quarter won all six games in the series. The Hawks had a 47-point advantage in their victories.