Heat hold off Hawks, advance Matthews tallies 59th, 60th goals for Leafs
MIAMI — Victor Oladipo scored 23 points, Bam Adebayo added 20 points and 11 rebounds, and the Miami Heat moved into the Eastern Conference semifinals by beating the Atlanta Hawks 9794 on Tuesday night.
Tyler Herro scored 16, Max Strus scored 15 and Caleb Martin added 10 for the topseeded Heat, who ousted the eighth-seeded Hawks in five games. And Miami got the series-clincher without Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry, both of whom sat out Tuesday with injuries.
Trae Young’s rough series for Atlanta remained that way: He finished 2-for-12 from the floor, scoring just 11 points. For the series, the Hawks’ guard shot 32% against Miami’s swarming defense.
De’Andre Hunter scored 35 for Atlanta, which got 12 apiece from Kevin Huerter and Danilo Gallinari.
Grizzlies 111, Timberwolves 109 — Ja Morant scored on a layup with a second left, and Memphis rallied from 11 points down in the fourth quarter to edge Minnesota and grab a 3-2 lead in their first-round Western Conference series.
Morant, named the NBA’s most improved player on Monday, struggled mightily much of the game. But he turned it on in the fourth quarter, scoring 18 points — including 9 of 10 at the freethrow line.
Morant came from the low post as the Grizzlies inbounded the ball with 3.7 seconds left and lost Anthony Edwards at the top of the key. That left him an open lane into the paint that he’s so rarely had in this series, beating Jarred Vanderbilt with his left hand on an underhanded layup. Morant finished with 30 and had 13 rebounds and nine assists.
Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 59th and 60th goals of the season, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-0 on Tuesday night to clinch homeice advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The 24-year-old Matthews, who snapped a five-game goal drought, is the first player to score 60 times in a campaign since Steven Stamkos in 201112.
Oilers 5, Penguins 1 — Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists to outduel Sidney Crosby, and surging Edmonton rolled past Pittsburgh.
McDavid pushed his point total to an NHL-best 122 by finishing off his 22nd career fourpoint game with a pretty shot from a tight angle 9:13 into the third period. His 44th goal gave the Oilers a three-goal lead.
Evander Kane scored his sixth goal in his last four games for Edmonton.
Hurricanes 4, Rangers 3 —
Vincent Trochek had a goal and an assist, rookie Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 31 shots and Carolina beat New York to clinch the Metropolitan Division title.
Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen and Jordan Martinook also scored for Carolina, and Brady Skjei had two assists.
Lightning 4, Blue Jackets 1 —
Steven Stamkos reached the 100-point mark for the first time in his NHL career by scoring two goals and assisting on two more, and Tampa Bay beat Columbus.
Stamkos has at least three points in each of his past five games and is the eighth NHL player to reach 100 points this season.
Islanders 4, Capitals 1 — Playing without injured captain Alex Ovechkin, Washington missed an opportunity to move up in the standings with a loss to New York.
The Capitals blew a lead and gave up four unanswered goals to an opponent that has long been out of playoff contention.