Washington (AFP)
The Boston Celtics, who finished the regular season at the top of the Eastern Conference and the overall standings, began their campaign in the first round of the NBA Playoffs strongly, after defeating their guest Miami Heat 114-94, while the Oklahoma City Thunder, which has the best record, achieved In the West, an exciting victory over the visiting New Orleans Pelicans 94-92 thanks to Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
In Boston, the Celtics won the first game out of a possible seven effortlessly, after completely dominating their confrontation with the Heat until the difference reached 34 points in the last quarter of a match in which Jason Tatum excelled by achieving his first triple double in the playoffs. After scoring 23 points, 10 rebounds and two assists.
In front of a team that won its ticket to the playoffs through the Eastern Region playoff, which placed it in the last eighth place to qualify for the playoffs, the first quarter was close, as the Celtics ended it in their favor, 26-21, before striking strongly in the second, which they won by 10 points, 34-24. Entering the second half leading 60-45.
After a one-sided third quarter, which the Celtics ended 31-14, the legendary green team expanded the gap to 34 points in the final quarter, before the Heat woke up and reduced it to 14 without that being enough to worry the home team, who expanded it to 20 in the end.
Six Celtics players finished the match with ten or more points, and the most notable of them, in addition to Tatum, was Derrick White, who scored 20 points, while Bam Adebayo was the best (24 points) among the visitors, who were absent for the second game in a row, their star Jimmy Butler due to an injury to his right knee. .
The confrontation between the Celtics and the Heat is of a revenge nature, as last season they reached the Eastern Conference final and the latter advanced in the series 3-0 before deciding it in its favor in the seventh game on its opponent’s home field with a huge score of 103-84.
The Celtics, who excelled on Sunday from beyond the arc by scoring 22 hat-tricks, appear invincible this season in their home stadium, as they achieved their 38th victory among their fans in 42 matches so far, and they hope to continue in this vein when they host the second match on Wednesday.
Despite the continued absence of its Greek star, Giannis Antetokounmpo, due to an injury that also kept him from the last three matches of the regular season, the Milwaukee Bucks, third in the Eastern Conference, took full advantage of the ground factor and resolved their first confrontation with the Indiana Pacers 109-94, thanks to Damian Lillard, who scored all… His 35 points in the first half.
In the Western Region, and a few hours after he was named to the final list of players nominated for the Best Player Award alongside the stars of the Denver Nuggets, Serbian Nikola Jokic and the Dallas Mavericks, Slovenian Luka Doncic, Gilgeous-Alexander shone and led the Thunder to victory over its guest Pelicans 94-92 by scoring 28 points, including the lead basket. And the victory came in the last 32.5 seconds of the match.
After C.J. McCollum failed with his triple attempt in the fatal seconds of the match, the Thunder celebrated their first victory in the “playoff” since 2019, hoping to add the second on Wednesday, when they play again at home.
Thanks to the efforts of James Harden (28 points) and Croatian Ivica Zubats (20 with 15 rebounds), the Los Angeles Clippers won their first confrontation with their guest Dallas Mavericks 109-97 despite the brilliance of Doncic (33 points with 13 rebounds and 6 assists) and Kyrie Irving (31 points with… 7 rebounds) among the guests.
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