Cavs stun Celtics in Game 2
BOSTON -- Donovan Mitchell banked in a 3-pointer from a few steps beyond the top of the arc and could only shrug as he backpedaled back on defense. He followed with two baskets in the lane to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a 16-point lead.
“Sometimes you get lucky,” Mitchell said after scoring 29 points to help Cleveland beat Boston 118-94 on Thursday night. “Shooters shoot.”
Two nights after losing the opener by 25 points, the Cavaliers answered with a blowout of their own, beating the top-seeded Celtics in Boston to tie their Eastern Conference semifinal series at one game apiece. The teams now head to Cleveland for Games 3 and 4 today and Monday.
“We expected them to play better and they did,” Celtics center Al Horford said. “They responded and we didn’t.”
Mitchell scored 33 points in the opener but got little help. On Thursday, the Cavs All-Star took just six shots and scored six points in the first half, while handing out five assists. Mitchell had 16 points in the third quarter and hit three straight baskets to start the fourth, including the 28-footer off the glass.
“I hadn’t shot much, trying to find ways to get guys involved early, and picking my spots. I was just continuing to find ways to apply pressure on them,” said Mitchell, who finished with eight assists and seven rebounds.
“In the second half it was scoring,” he said. “Sometimes it’s assists. Sometimes it’s rebounds. Whatever it takes. And when it was time to go, it’s time to go. I knew at some point I was going to have to start, obviously, shooting.”
MAVERICKS 119 THUNDER 110 OKLAHOMA CITY -- Luka Doncic bounced back with 29 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists to help Dallas beat Oklahoma City and even the Western Conference semifinals at one win apiece.
The Thunder held Doncic to 19 points on 6-for-19 shooting in Game 1. He made 11 of 21 field goals in Game 2. P.J. Washington added 29 points and 11 rebounds for the Mavericks.
DALLAS -- The Dallas Stars built another multi-goal lead against high-scoring Colorado. This time, they held on to win and avoid another 0-2 hole in the NHL playoffs.
“Found a way to win the game, and that’s the most important thing,” Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said.
Heiskanen scored two power-play goals, Roope Hintz had a goal and three assists and the Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 in Game 2 on Thursday night to even the second-round Western Conference series.
Tyler Seguin got his first goal this postseason on a shorthander at the end of a 3-on-1 breakaway that put the Stars up 4-0 late in the second period. Esa Lindell added an empty-netter with 20 seconds left, with Hintz getting his final assist.
Jake Oettinger had 28 saves against a Colorado team that led the NHL in scoring during the regular season and is averaging an NHL-high 5.0 goals this postseason.
Joel Kiviranta, Brandon Duhaime and Valeri Nichushkin scored in the third period for the Avalanche, but they failed to score on a power play in the final three minutes that was partly a 6-on-4 after goalie Alexander Georgiev skated to the bench.
“Obviously, I think we can handle those situations better. But I think that the silver lining is that we built 3-0 and 4-0 leads, so we’ve played some very good hockey for long stretches against them,” Stars coach Pete
DeBoer said. “I thought tonight was better than Game 1. We did most of the things that we wanted to do tonight. Building that lead, the right guys scored, got on the board for us.”
Game 3 is Saturday night in Denver.
Colorado had an extra attacker with 3:44 left when Nichushkin got a goal on a puck that ricocheted off his right leg. He has scored in all seven games, matching Pat LaFontaine’s NHL record set in 1992 with Buffalo for the longest goal streak to start a single postseason. It also equaled the franchise’s overall postseason goal streak with Claude Lemieux and Joe Sakic.
The Avs had also trailed 3-0 in the first period of Game 1 two nights earlier before coming back to win 4-3 in overtime, and extend their postseason winning streak to five games. That was the third time this season they rebounded from a multigoal deficit to win in Dallas.
They came up short this time when hurt by some self-induced penalties and going 0 for 3 on power plays. Of their six penalties, they had two for delay of game after knocking pucks into the stands, and two more for too many men on the ice.
“The second period for me is when it fell part. Just not sharp,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Then we turn around in the third and go to work, and that’s what happens.”
Hintz, whose only previous point this postseason had been an empty-net goal in Game 4 of the opening series against Vegas, put Dallas up 2-0 less than two minutes into the second period.