Warriors, Thunder, Hawks, Pacers win openers
Curry tweaks ankle as Golden State handles Houston • OKC blows out Dallas • Raptors lose at home
Patrick Beverley messed with Stephen Curry. That didn’t work. The Houston Rockets roughed up Curry at every opportunity. That didn’t work, either.
Then Curry landed awkwardly on his right ankle. That knocked him out of the game.
The Golden State Warriors earned a 10478 victory in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series against Houston on Saturday, but they left Oracle Arena with bigger concerns. Namely, will their reigning and soon-to-be two-time MVP play in Game 2? And, if so, will this injury hamper him?
Curry has a history of ankle trouble, as Warriors fans know all too well. Head coach Steve Kerr described Curry as questionable for Monday night’s game, after Curry rolled his ankle yet again.
“Right now, I don’t see a scenario where I’ll be out,” Curry said. “Obviously, if it’s not right and I’m at risk of further injury, that’s the only thing we have to worry about.”
This latest misstep occurred late in the second quarter. Curry hobbled around briefly before leaving the game, and soon thereafter he headed to the locker room.
He played the first 2:47 of the third quarter, while not moving well at all, and then returned to the locker room. Curry had his ankle re-taped and resurfaced on the bench in the final minute of the third quarter.
He lobbied to return to action, even enlisting assistant coaches Luke Walton and Bruce Fraser on his behalf, but Kerr refused.
The Warriors went 2-1 in the three game Curry missed this season, two in December with a bruised left shin and one on March 1 after rolling his left ankle.
On Saturday, Curry still led the Warriors with 24 points Saturday, all in the first half. Klay Thompson added 16, and Green and Mo Speights had 12 each. James Harden scored 17 points to lead Houston, but he attempted no free throws in the game after averaging an NBA-high 10.2 per contest in the regular season.
The Warriors led comfortably the whole way (by as many as 29 points), though Harden’s three-pointer trimmed the cushion to 71-55 with 3:58 left in the third quarter. Green quickly fueled a Warriors response, restoring the lead to 82-58, leaving the Rockets to quietly slink away.
(San Francisco Chronicle/TNS)
Thunder 108, Mavericks 70
Russell Westbrook scored 24 points to lead Oklahoma City over Dallas for a 1-0 lead in their first-round series.
Westbrook added 11 rebounds and five assists, Kevin Durant added 23 points, five assists and five rebounds in only 26 minutes of work and Serge Ibaka posted 17 points and nine boards.
Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 18 points, while no other Maverick scored in double figures.
The Thunder came out of the gates trying to blow the Mavericks out from the start. Built on the scoring of Durant and Westbrook and the dominant work on the boards, Oklahoma City jumped out to a 26-11 first quarter advantage.
Dallas didn’t help its cause with its inability to score. Even though Oklahoma City’s defense gave the Mavs opportunities to knock down wide-open shots, they were unable to connect and fell behind by 20 points midway through the second quarter.
The Thunder didn’t let up on the struggling Mavericks. Enes Kanter and Ibaka got involved in the offense and the lead grew to 59-33 at halftime.
With the score 93-51 heading into the fourth, Thunder coach Billy Donovan sat his starters for the rest of the night.
Hawks 102, Celtics 101
Al Horford scored 24 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and made multiple hustle plays down the stretch, allowing Atlanta to escape with a home win in Game 1 of an Eastern Conference playoffs series that is expected to be tight.
After trailing by as many as 19 in the first, Boston’s Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart sparked a second-half rally. It was the second straight improbable comeback for the Celtics, who stormed back from 26 down in a win over the Miami Heat in the final game of the regular season. Boston nearly did it again Saturday.
Isaiah Thomas scored 19 points, and Bradley scored 18 points, while Smart hit a pair of three-pointers in the fourth quarter, the second tying the game 80-80 with 7:30 to play. Jae Crowder followed with a go-ahead three-pointer that gave the Celtics their first lead of the game with 6:50 to play.
Horford came up huge for Atlanta, though. He had an assist to Kent Bazemore while sitting on the floor and then hustled down an offensive rebound off his own miss that led to two free throws in the final minutes.
Bazemore had a big game with 23 points and eight rebounds, while Teague finished with 20 points and 12 assists.
Pacers 100, Raptors 90
Toronto came out tight in the opening game against Indiana and it played right into the hands of Paul George.
The Pacers forward scored 27 of his 33 points in the second half to lead his team to a road victory.
All-Star guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan both struggled for the second-seeded Raptors, combining for 25 points on a terrible display of shooting.
Toronto – which led by as many as eight in the first half, but took only a twopoint lead into the intermission – now has lost the opening game at home in the playoffs in three straight years. It did not survive the first round of the playoffs in the previous two. (Reuters)