Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks and Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers this Saturday at the start of the NBA playoffs, in which they want to make them pay for their eliminations from last season.
The day also included the triumph of the Brooklyn Nets against the Boston Celtics with a display of their stars Durant, Irving and Harden, who combined to score 82 of their team’s 104 points, and concluded with the duel between the Denver Nuggets. and the Portland Trail Blazers.
In Milwaukee, a winning shot by Khris Middleton gave the Bucks a 109-107 victory in overtime against the Heat, leading 1-0 in this Eastern conference first-round series.
“There were a lot of mistakes, a lot of missed free throws but I think it’s a great start to what we want to achieve, what we want to be,” said Middleton, who scored 27 points.
The Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 26 points, 15 rebounds and 3 steals but only scored 10 of his 27 shots and spent a torture from the free throw line (6/13) that almost cost the Bucks the victory.
The veteran Jimmy Butler (17 points and 10 rebounds), the star of the Heat, forced overtime with a spectacular basket on the horn in front of Giannis but did not reverse his bad night in shooting (4/22).
In overtime, Goran Dragic tied the score 107 with 20 seconds remaining with a 3-pointer from the corner that left the last possession for Milwaukee.
Middleton took over the responsibility and hit a tricky shot in the back half despite double marking by Duncan Robinson and Trevor Ariza.
With just 0.5 seconds, Butler tried a desperate triple that was blocked by Jrue Holiday.
The series will continue on Monday also on the floor of the Bucks, who want to end the frustrations of recent years in the playoffs, including last year’s 4-1 elimination in the second round against Miami.
DONCIC DOMINATES CLIPPERS
With a monumental triple-double, Slovenian Luka Doncic led the Dallas Mavericks’ 113-103 win over the Los Angeles Clippers to make it 1-0 in this Western first-round series.
At 22, Doncic led the Mavericks to win in Los Angeles with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
Guard Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 21 points and Dorian Finney-Smith another 18 for the Texas franchise, which last year was eliminated by the Clippers 4-2 in the first round despite the spectacular level that Doncic already showed, averaging in the series. 31.0 points, 9.8 rebounds and 8.7 assists.
“I hope this time is different, I hope it is not the same story,” Doncic said after Saturday’s game. “I forgot how much fun it was to play in the playoffs.”
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George stayed at 26 and 23 points, respectively, for the Clippers, who entered this series as favorites.
After their disaster last year in the playoffs at Disney World, where they lost in the second round to the Nuggets, Leonard and George have a second and perhaps last chance this year to assert their bet to play together in Los Angeles.
NETS TOMB TO CELTICS
In their first game together in the playoffs, superstars Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden led the Brooklyn Nets’ 104-93 victory over the Boston Celtics.
Durant added 32 points and 12 rebounds, Irving 29 points and Harden 21 points and 8 assists supported by the fans at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn (New York), where enthusiasm reigns with the ambitious team they have assembled this season.
Young Celtics star Jayson Tatum finished with 22 points that were insufficient in the face of the Nets’ unusual concentration of talent.
The Celtics came to the break with a 53-47 advantage but Durant, with 13 points in the third quarter, and the other Nets figures pressed the accelerator to direct the tie, showing that they do not lack chemistry despite having coincided in only eight games of regular phase.
You can keep an eye on these guys very well, but you still have to score. We will be better. We’ll attack them better, “said Celtics manager Brad Stevens.
Veteran Kemba Walker, who was due to step up from Jaylen Brown’s drop, disappointed with 15 points while Robert Williams III had an astonishing performance from the bench.
In 23 minutes, the young center had 11 points and 9 rebounds with 9 blocks, a record for a player in the historic franchise in a playoff game.
In the entire NBA, no player had posted 9 blocks in a postseason game since Andrew Bynum in 2012.
Lillard’s Blazers hit the Nuggets first
With 34 points and 13 assists, point guard Damian Lillard led the Portland Trail Blazers 123-109 victory this Saturday against Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets, giving them a 1-0 lead in the NBA playoffs.
The victory of the Blazers, sixth in the regular phase of the Western conference, snatches the field advantage from the Nuggets, third, in this first round of the postseason.
Lillard made the difference for a Blazers who also had the contribution of guard CJ McCollum (21 points) and veteran Carmelo Anthony (18).
Greeted with boos on the court from his former team, Anthony looked especially motivated, scoring 12 points in his first five minutes on the court.
Serbian center Nikola Jokic, finalist for the MVP (Most Valuable Player) award, once again made an extra effort with 34 points, 3 triples and 15 rebounds trying to alleviate the absence of the other Nuggets figure, Jamal Murray, who will be low in all the playoffs.
At his side, the young Michael Porter Jr. shone with 25 points and Argentine guard Facundo Campazzo led the game with 8 points, 2 triples and 5 assists in 32 minutes on the court.
The rookie point guard put his usual intensity and dedication into play to try to stop Lillard, one of the best point guards in the NBA, managing to make 2 steals and 1 block on the defensive side.
(GG) (AFP)