ATLANTA –- The night for the Washington Wizards began with a dash symbol.

And it ended with a mad dash for one rebound the Wizards failed to secure. Washington let yet another opportunity to win this series slip right through its fingers with an 82-81 loss to the Atlanta Hawks that now pushes the Wizards to the brink of elimination.

Wednesday night began with such promise for the Wizards as John Wall made his return after a three-game absence with a fractured hand/wrist. But his return came with great subterfuge, as Washington wouldn’t reveal its All-Star point guard was going to play until the last possible moment.

Wall said he knew in his mind that he was going to play as early as Tuesday but that coach Randy Wittman wanted to consult with doctors after Wall took part in the shootaround to make sure everything would be OK.

Still, as the point guard was warming up and testing his left hand in front of a throng of reporters about an hour before the game, the Wizards announced he would be available to play but continued to deem him a game-time decision.

Then, half an hour before tipoff, the probable starting lineups were posted on a dry-erase board in the media room at Philips Arena. Next to point guard for the Wizards, though, was simply a dash sign. Somewhere, the deceptive Pat Riley had to be impressed.

Less than 10 minutes later, Wall’s name was finally written in. And Wall had the Wizards 1.9 seconds away from coming within one win of the franchise’s first conference finals appearance since 1979.

Playing with five non-displaced fractures in his left hand, Wall was fearless, breathing life into the Wizards with 15 points, seven assists, four rebounds, four steals and two highlight-worthy blocks.

Wearing something to protect the top of his hand, Wall almost immediately showed that his game wasn’t broken despite his fractures.

Wall scored the second basket of the game for the Wizards with a fast-break layup. If there was any doubt about whether Wall could still do Wall-ish things with his left hand, the All-Star put that to rest when he attacked the Hawks defense on a break minutes later.

Using a nasty hesitation, inside-out, left-handed dribble to completely juke Jeff Teague, who was left grasping for air as he went for a steal, Wall scored over Kyle Korver as a helpless Al Horford tried to chase from behind. And, oh -- Wall scored that basket on a left-handed layup with 7:47 left.

Wall was practically a walking "Vine" as he made several plays that became instant Vine-video replay hits. On another play, he spun before crossing over Dennis Schroder and blowing by the Hawks’ backup before finding Marcin Gortat, who struggled mightily in Game 4 without Wall, for a layup.

“I thought I made a couple of moves and felt comfortable,” Wall said in a drastic understatement. “And then I knew I was myself.”

That was bad news for the Hawks. Wall expected the Hawks to take some shots at his injured hand. But it appeared as if the Hawks played a clean game, although the point guard said Atlanta did test his hand.

“No, I took some smacks at it,” Wall said. “They took some great smacks at it [while] driving to the paint ... [but] I can’t say what they try to do. As a team, I respect those guys.”

Watching most of this game, all you could do was respect what Wall was doing. He hit five of his first seven shots and had 11 points at halftime. And he wasn’t done with the highlights.

In the third, he stole a pass in the paint on defense, and then with his back turned toward the opposite end, Wall threw an over-the-head, no-look pass down the court to a streaking Bradley Beal for a layup on the other end.

Call it “The Five-Non-Displaced-Fractures, No-Look, Over-The-Head Technique.”

With Wall on the floor, Gortat (14 points) could finally get loose on some pick-and-rolls. Beal (23 points) could focus on scoring and defending -- not having to lead and try to get teammates involved more.

Washington led 74-63 with 6:15 remaining, and Wall looked like he had the Wizards poised to close this series out in D.C.

But then Washington’s Achilles’ heel revealed itself again. The Wizards have had trouble holding on to big leads this season, and Atlanta conjured a 14-0 run, slowing the Wizards down a bit by also putting DeMarre Carroll on Wall.

Paul Pierce, though, buried a 3. Wall found Gortat and the game was tied with 51.3 seconds left. Later down two, Pierce was up to his “Truth” antics again, drilling another 3-pointer, this time in front of the Hawks’ bench to push Washington up 81-80 with 8.3 seconds left.

The Philips crowd stood in unison, half-shocked and half-disgusted that Pierce was left open to deliver what looked like another dagger. Pierce turned and appeared to have something to say to the Hawks' bench.

But Atlanta would have the last word. Schroder drove the lane, but Wall blocked his shot. Horford, though, barreled his way in for the rebound for the game-winning putback with 1.9 seconds left.

“It’s a tough one to swallow, especially we had a nine-point lead,” Pierce said. “... And it comes down to one rebound, but it shouldn’t have come down to that.”

What will be a tough pill for the Wizards to swallow if they lose this series is that Horford simply wanted the ball more at the end. He disregarded Nene in front of him and willed himself to the offensive rebound as Wizards went flying.

It doesn’t matter if Horford committed an offensive foul or not. Refs are not going to make that call at that stage and, really, it just comes down to who wants the ball more there.

The night started off with such great promise as Wall returned and played as if his hand had mended magically.

But the night ended with Washington’s dreams of making the conference finals perhaps fractured yet again. In Game 4, Washington wasted Beal's best game of his young career with 34 points, seven assists and six rebounds and numerous opportunities to win that game.

This time, all the Wizards had to do was grab one rebound to inch within one win of doing something that hasn’t been done in 36 years.

That wait might continue unless Wall has some more tricks up that hand brace of his.