Jayson Tatum on Sunday spun in for a buzzer-beating layup to give the Boston Celtics a thrilling 115-114 victory over the Brooklyn Nets in the first game of their NBA Eastern Conference playoff series.
Tatum scored 31 points to lead the Celtics, who thwarted a fourth-quarter comeback bid by the Nets to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven first-round series.
Reigning champions the Milwaukee Bucks, Eastern Conference top seeds the Miami Heat and Western Conference top seeds the Phoenix Suns also won their playoff openers.
Photo: AFP
The Milwaukee Bucks, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, beat the Chicago Bulls 93-86, while the Heat dominated the Atlanta Hawks 115-91.
In Phoenix, Arizona, veteran point guard Chris Paul scored 19 of his 30 points in the second half as the Suns, who finished the regular season with the best record in the league, led wire-to-wire in a 110-99 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.
In Boston, Tatum added eight assists and two blocked shots, Jaylen Brown added 23 points, while Al Horford and Marcus Smart scored 20 apiece for the Celtics, who took a 96-85 lead into the fourth quarter, but trailed 114-111 with less than a minute to play.
Former Celtic Kyrie Irving, booed throughout by Boston fans who still resent his departure for Brooklyn, led the Nets with 39 points, but Kevin Durant was the only other Nets starter in double figures with 23.
Irving will no doubt hear from the NBA after a middle-finger salute to heckling fans in the third quarter, but he saved his best gesture for the fourth period, when he scored 18 points to key the Nets’ comeback bid.
Irving’s long three-pointer over Smart put Brooklyn up 114-111 with 1 minute, 4 seconds to play, but the Celtics clamped down defensively and pulled within one on Brown’s driving layup.
After Durant missed a three-point attempt, Tatum, fed by Smart from across the lane, willed his way through traffic for the game-winner.
“When he took that dribble, we just kind of made eye contact, and he made a great pass and I just had to make a layup,” Tatum said of the final play.
A first half that featured 17 lead changes ended with the score knotted at 61-61, but the Celtics, who had been idle since their last regular-season game as the Nets battled through the play-in tournament, pulled away with a 39-24 third quarter.
Irving was unrepentant after his response to Celtics fans.
“It’s nothing new when I come into this building what it’s gonna be like, but it’s the same energy they had for me and I’m gonna have the same energy for them,” he said.
However, Irving said that his fan interaction should not be the focus of the contest.
“It’s not about the fans,” Irving said. “The fans aren’t playing.”
Durant said he did not think Irving worried about fans’ hostility.
“I think he just plays his game and does what’s required out there tonight,” said Durant, who said the Nets could find ways to improve before Game 2 tomorrow.
“Obviously the last play was crucial, but there was a lot of plays that mattered,” he said. “It’s a journey.”
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Antetokounmpo scored 27 points and pulled down 16 rebounds to lead the Bucks to victory, although foul trouble kept him on the bench for much of the fourth quarter.
Montenegrin center Nikola Vucevic led the Bulls with 24 points and 17 rebounds, but missed two straight baskets in the paint in the final minute.
The Bucks led by as many as 16 points in the first half, the Bulls taking the lead for the first time with less than three minutes left in the third quarter.
Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday drilled a go-ahead three-pointer with 5:03 remaining, and the Bulls would not get in front again.
In Miami, Heat reserve Duncan Robinson scored a career playoff high 27 points as the Heat defensively dominated Atlanta for a 115-91 victory.
Robinson made nine of 10 shots, including eight of nine from three-point range, while Jimmy Butler added 21 points for Miami.
In a sprawling circuit near Mount Fuji, a humble Corolla running on liquid hydrogen has made its racing debut, part of a move to bring the technology into the racing world and to demonstrate Toyota’s resolve to develop green vehicles. Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda, resplendent in a fire-resistant racing uniform, was all smiles as he prepared to buzz around the circuit in the hydrogen-fueled Corolla. “This is a world first for a liquid-hydrogen car to race,” said Toyoda, a former Toyota chief executive officer, grandson of the automaker’s founder and a licensed race driver himself. “We hope it will offer another option
Novak Djokovic seemed ready to move on from non-tennis issues at the French Open on Wednesday, while two of the four Taiwanese at the tournament advanced in the women’s doubles, with one due to play last night. Serbia’s Djokovic beat Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 7-6 (7/2), 6-0, 6-3 in the second round of the men’s singles and wrote on the lens of a TV camera — an autograph and a smiley face. It was quite different from what happened after his win on Monday, when Djokovic wrote in Serbian: “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence.” He spoke about the matter
Chinese pair Liang Wenbo and Li Hang on Tuesday received lifetime bans from snooker for match-fixing after a “heart-breaking” corruption scandal rocked the sport. In total, 10 Chinese players were handed bans of varying lengths by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). Lu Ning, Zhao Xintong, Yan Bingtao, Chen Zifan, Zhang Jiankang, Bai Langning, Zhao Jianbo and Chang Bingyu were the other players suspended. Yan, the 2021 Masters champion, has been banned until December 2027 after his initial seven-and-a-half-year suspension was reduced following his early admissions and guilty plea. Former UK Championship winner Zhao Xintong is to serve a 20-month suspension, reduced
Iga Swiatek on Saturday said it would be “disrespectful” to her vanquished opponents to talk about her propensity for winning bagel sets after thrashing Wang Xinyu without losing a game at the French Open. The world No. 1 won 6-0, 6-0 in just 51 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier to reach the last 16. Across 57 matches in 17 Grand Slam appearances in her young career, Swiatek has already won 19 sets to love. Yet she knows how it feels to be on the wrong end of a bagel, having lost three sets at majors 6-0 herself, although all of those came across
RSS