The Hawks entered a must-win Game 5 of their first-round series against the Celtics without star guard Dejounte Murray.
Murray, the team’s second-leading scorer at 20.5 points per game, wasn’t with the team after the one-game suspension for bumping into referee Gediminas Petraitis in Game 4.
He said Tuesday in pregame media availability that he felt he had experienced “one-sided” treatment from Petraitis dating back to his time with the Spurs. And with the Hawks trailing 3–1 in the series entering Game 5, the suspension meant Murray could have missed the game that ended Atlanta’s season.
