The top-seeded Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday rolled to convincing victories in their opening NBA playoff series.
Eastern Conference top seeds Boston laid down a marker with a 120-95 rout of the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers at the TD Garden, while Oklahoma City were made to work harder by Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks before finally pulling clear to seal a 117-95 victory in their Western Conference semi-final series opener.
In Boston, Jaylen Brown scored 32 points, while Derrick White added 25, including seven three-pointers, in an emphatic win for the Celtics, who are chasing a record 18th NBA championship.
Photo: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY
Boston were in complete control for most of the game, holding a double-digit lead through the second half to close out an emphatic win at TD Garden.
Boston star Jayson Tatum added 18 points, but had an off-night shooting-wise, making just seven-of-19 from the field.
“It starts with defense, we wanted to set the tone on defense and we kept them under 100” points, Brown told TNT television. “But we feel like we’ve got an answer for everything, so we just play the game the right way, and see what they want to take away and then we play after that.”
In Oklahoma City, the Thunder and the Mavericks fought a nip-and-tuck duel before the No.1 seeds pulled away decisively in the fourth quarter.
Trailing by nine points at halftime, Dallas rallied in the third quarter to get within one point at 66-65.
However, the youthful Thunder lineup began to find their range, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander adding 10 points in the third quarter to help Oklahoma City build a 10-point cushion heading into the fourth quarter.
Oklahoma City’s barrage of scoring continued in the fourth with Jalen Williams adding 10 points as the Thunder outscored their visitors 28-16 to seal victory by a 22-point margin.
Oklahoma City, who have an average age of just older than 23, are the youngest team to win a second-round playoff game and were the youngest team to win a post-season series after sweeping the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round.
“We don’t worry about all the statistics and the stats, and how young we are,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after the win. “We just want to win basketball games at a high level and that’s what we focus on.”
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