Butler's last-gasp layup helps Wizards avoid elimination

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Caron Butler made a layup with 3.9 seconds remaining to keep alive the Washington Wizards' NBA playoff campaign with an 88-87 win at the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday.

Cleveland had the opportunity to win the game with the final play of the game but LeBron James missed the layup on the hooter, giving the Wizards the narrow win.

"I thought it was going to go in," a dejected James told reporters. "It just didn't fall."

The Cavaliers now lead the series 3-2 with Game Six scheduled for Friday in Washington.

The Wizards, however, will be without Gilbert Arenas, who missed Wednesday's game with a knee injury and said his season was over.

Arenas missed 66 regular season games after knee surgery and had played in the first four games of the series despite deep bruising to his knee.

The Wizards, who were down by five points with less than two minutes to play, scored the final six points of the game, with Butler's drive past James and layup that bounced briefly on the rim before dropping in, giving them the lead.

James then drove to the basket in the dying seconds but his shot missed, leading to an on-court celebration by the Wizards.

Butler scored 32 points to lead the Wizards while DeShawn Stevenson added 17.

James scored a game high 34 points for Cleveland.

In the other NBA playoff game on Wednesday, the Boston Celtics eased to a comfortable 110-85 home victory over the Atlanta Hawks.

The Hawks, who sneaked into the playoffs as the eighth-seeds and had a regular season record under .500, had won the previous two games in Atlanta to tie the series 2-2.

The Celtics, who won 66 games and had the best regular season record in the league, were led by Paul Pierce's 22 points and now hold a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

(Writing by Roger Lajoie in Toronto; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)