Bill Russell came up with an enormous game 5 to help Team RedsArmy avoid elimination with a 114-111 win. His 20 points, 19 rebounds, 6 blocks and 3 assists made him the easy choice for player of the game.
Reggie Lewis scored 16 points off the bench on 7 of 11 shooting... 10 of those points coming in the first quarter as Team RedsArmy took a 6 point lead. But they followed a 35 point first quarter with a 20 second quarter to go into halftime tied.
From there, it was tight the whole way. Team BigMck took a 7 point lead midway through the 3rd, but RedsArmy went on a 13-5 run to end the quarter. Russell owned the 4th quarter with 10 points and 7 rebounds. RedsArmy made its free throws at the end, despite shooting under 67% for the game, to hold on for the 3 point win. Larry Bird had 18 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists in the loss.
"They did a good job bottling me up in the first couple of games," said Russell. "I'm just happy that I could do something to help our team win. Nothing I did would mean anything if we didn't pull it out tonight."
Team BigMck leads the series 3-2. See the full box score here
