Conley, Lee lead Grizzlies to win
Mike Conley and Courtney Lee each scored 18 points, and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 97-82, Wednesday night to grab the franchise’s first 2-0 lead in a playoff series.
The Grizzlies took full advantage of starting the playoffs with home-court advantage for only the second time in their short postseason history. They had only won their playoff opener once before, and that was on the road in San Antonio in 2011.
Marc Gasol had 15 points, and Zach Randolph and Beno Udrih added 10 apiece.
“All we did is just take care of home court, which we were supposed to do,” Lee said. “We didn’t want those guys to come in here and get one and switch home-court advantage in their favor.”
LaMarcus Aldridge led Portland with 24 points and 14 rebounds, and he also had four blocks with two steals. Damian Lillard added 18 points but the Trail Blazers lost their first two playoff games for the first time since 2011, when they fell in six games to Dallas.
Nicolas Batum scored 11, while Robin Lopez and Meyers Leonard added 10 apiece.
Portland came into the Western Conference series with several players banged up, and the list got longer with center Chris Kaman out after spraining his left ankle Tuesday in practice.
at Atlanta 96, Brooklyn 91: Paul Millsap scored 19 points and the top-seeded Hawks again survived a tougher-than-expected test from the Nets to take a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference series.
Squandering an early 12point lead, the Hawks fell behind before halftime and spent the rest of the game struggling to put away the No. 8 seed.
It went down to the wire. Deron Williams missed an open 15-foot jumper that would’ve tied it with about 10 seconds to go. Kyle Korver rebounded, was fouled and made two free throws to clinch Atlanta’s win.
Millsap, who missed five games near the end of the season because of a sprained right shoulder, ditched a pad that he felt restricted his shooting motion. He responded by hitting seven of 11 shots.