Magic start off with a stunner
Vucevic powers Game 1 upset of top-seeded Bucks
The Bucks’ hopes of winning their first NBA title since 1971 got off to a rocky start.
Nikola Vucevic scored a playoff career-high 35 points and had 14 rebounds, and the Magic stunned the top-seeded Bucks 122-110 on Tuesday in the league’s fan-free Disney World bubble in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Terrence Ross scored 18 points, Gary Clark added 15 and D.J. Augustin had 11 points and 11 assists for the eighth-seeded Magic, who were 14point underdogs.
The Magic took a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference best-of-seven first-round series, an intriguing result given that the Bucks can’t rely on home-court advantage in these pandemic-altered playoffs.
“We don’t care what other people have to say,” Vucevic said. “We focus on ourselves and we came out and played a great game on both ends of the floor.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 31 points, 17 rebounds and seven assists for the Bucks. Last season’s MVP was held without a field goal over the final 11 minutes and seemed to get more frustrated as the fourth quarter went on.
Butler, Dragic help Heat pull away: Jimmy Butler scored 28 points, Goran Dragic had 24 and the Heat beat the Pacers 113-101 in the opener of their Eastern Conference series.
The Heat pulled away in the closing minutes, long after the Pacers had lost star guard Victor Oladipo to an eye injury.
Bam Adebayo had 17 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for the Heat, who were just a little bit better in a mostly even matchup between the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds, who were separated by a game in the standings in this pandemic-shortened season.
The Pacers went 6-2 in the seeding games and the Heat were 3-5, with the teams splitting a pair of meetings. The Pacers’ victory Friday in the finale allowed them to take the No. 4 seed, which in other years would have been a bigger deal because it meant the Pacers would have had home-court advantage.
Butler seemed to treat it like a road game, appearing to jaw at one point toward the virtual Pacers fans filling the sides of the arena at Disney.
T,J. Warren and Malcolm Brogdon scored 22 points apiece for the Pacers, who will try to even the series Thursday.
Oladipo was limited to 8 minutes before he was scratched in the left eye with 3:26 remaining in the first quarter, appearing to be hit first by the Heat Jae Crowder.
Harden hard to contain: James Harden had 37 points and 11 rebounds, and the Rockets rolled past the Thunder 123-108 in Game 1 of their Western Conference series.
Rockets All-Star Russell Westbrook, who played his previous 11 years with the Thunder, was out with a quad injury. The fourth-seeded Rockets still made 20 3-pointers and shot 48% from the field.
Jeff Green scored 22 points and Eric Gordon added 21 for the Rockets, who aren’t sure how long they will be without Westbrook.
Danilo Gallinari matched a playoff career high with 29 points for the fifth-seeded Thunder. Chris Paul, who joined the Thunder in the trade that sent Westbrook to the Rockets, finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.