BOSTON (AP) — Jaylen Brown had 36 points and 10 rebounds, Kristaps Porzingis returned to the game after getting a bloody gash to the forehead and finished with 20 points, and the Boston Celtics beat the Orlando Magic 109-100 in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series on Wednesday night.
Boston took a 2-0 series lead while playing without All-Star Jayson Tatum, who has a bone bruise in his right wrist and missed a playoff game for the first time in his career.
Boston led by 15 points in the second half, then held off a late push by Orlando. The Celtics hit 12 3-pointers and went 25 of 33 from the free-throw line. Derrick White and Brown had 17 of Boston’s 28 points in the final period; White finished with 17.
Paolo Banchero led the Magic with 32 points and nine rebounds. Franz Wagner scored 25 points.
CAVALIERS 121, HEAT 112
CLEVELAND (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 30 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter, and Cleveland held on for a victory over Miami Heat on Wednesday night for a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
The top-seeded Cavaliers set an NBA playoff record with 11 3-pointers in the second quarter and had 22 for the game. However, Cleveland had to hold off a second-half charge by Miami.
Tyler Herro scored 33 points for Miami, which hosts Game 3 on Saturday afternoon.
The Cavaliers had a 19-point lead with under 3 minutes remaining in the third quarter before the Heat made their run to get within 105-103 lead with 3:11 left.
Mitchell, who also had six rebounds and six assists, then put the game on his shoulders. He scored Cleveland’s next eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers, during an 8-2 run to give them some breathing room.
Evan Mobley had 20 points and Darius Garland 19 for the Cavaliers.
ROCKETS 109, WARRIORS 94
HOUSTON (AP) — Jalen Green made eight 3-pointers and scored 38 points to lead Houston to a win over Golden State in a testy matchup to even the first-round Western Conference series at one game apiece.
The seventh-seeded Warriors never led and played short-handed for most of the night after Jimmy Butler left with a pelvis contusion after a hard fall on a foul late in the first quarter.
Green, the No. 2 pick in the 2021 draft, rebounded from a flop in his playoff debut, when he scored just seven points on 3-of-15 shooting, with a dominant Game 2.
His eight 3-pointers were two more than the No. 2-seeded Rockets made on 6-of-29 shooting in a 95-85 Game 1 loss.
Alperen Sengun had 17 points and 16 rebounds for the Rockets. Tari Eason had 14 points off the bench.
The Associated Press