Celtics, Clippers earn big victories

The Celtics clearly have the formula to create problems for the Raptors.

Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart each scored 21 points, Kemba Walker added 18 points and 10 assists and the Celtics never trailed on the way to beating the Raptors 112-94 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series Sunday.

The Celtics improved to 4-1 against the Raptors this season — no other team has beaten the reigning NBA champions more than twice — and both of their meetings in the NBA’s restart bubble at Walt Disney World have been onesided.

Toronto is 0-2 against Boston at Disney, losing by a combined 40 points and not leading for a single moment in those two games. The Raptors are 11-0 at Disney against everybody else.

Jaylen Brown scored 17 points and Daniel Theis finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds for Boston, which is 5-0 in this postseason.

Kyle Lowry had 17 points for Toronto, which got 15 from Serge Ibaka, 13 from Pascal Siakam on a day where he was slowed big-time by early foul trouble and 12 from OG Anunoby. CLIPPERS ADVANCE » Kawhi Leonard had 33 points and 14 rebounds and the Clippers eliminated Luka Doncic and the Mavericks from the playoffs with a 111-97 victory Sunday in Game 6 of the first-round series.

Doncic capped a superb first postseason with 38 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, keeping it interesting into the fourth quarter even while playing without injured teammate Kristaps Porzingis.

But with Leonard reaching the 30-point mark for his career-best fifth straight playoff game and a strong defensive effort, the Clippers had too many answers.

The No. 2 seed in the Western Conference advanced to a secondround meeting with either Denver or Utah. The sixth-seeded Jazz were trying to close that series out in six games later Sunday.

Golf

RAHM’S CLUTCH PUTT WINS IT » Even with so few people around, Jon Rahm could hear from the other side of the Olympia Fields clubhouse that Dustin Johnson had made a 45-foot birdie on the final hole to force a playoff in the BMW Championship.

Resilient as ever, Rahm went out and made some magic of his own. From one end of the 18th green to the other, Rahm’s putt from just over 65 feet rolled down the ridge and into the cup, setting off a roar so loud it nearly made up for not having spectators.

“I knew how good DJ has been playing. I was expecting nothing else,” Rahm said. “I was fully confident it was going to come into a playoff and hoping to win it. Never did I think I would make another 50-, 60-footer, a couple of breaks in there, to end up winning it.”

The course that all week felt like a U.S. Open delivered the kind of excitement typical of the Masters.

Rahm’s big birdie putt on the first extra hole spared him thoughts of his blunder in the third round, when he picked up his ball on the fifth green without marking it, leading to a one-shot penalty and his only bogey of the weekend.

He tore through the back nine on his way to a 6-under 64, the lowest round of the week, to finish at 4-under 276.

College football

OSU PLAYER SHOT» Ohio State defensive tackle Haskell Garrett was wounded in a weekend shooting in Columbus, police said.

Officers responding to a report of a shooting just before 12:30 a.m. Sunday found blood in the street and one shell casing near the blood, police said. They said the officers followed a trail of blood to an apartment where the 22-yearold Garrett was found with a “through-andthrough” gunshot wound to the cheeks.