Hawks turn back the Nets
Grizzlies in a romp; Clippers stop Spurs
ATLANTA — Banged up and bruised, the Atlanta Hawks survived their first test as the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
They were just good enough against the Brooklyn Nets.
Leading nearly the entire game but struggling to put the No. 8 seed away, the Hawks got 21 points from Kyle Korver and shook off another injury to beat Brooklyn 99-92 in Game 1 of the opening-round playoff series Sunday night.
All-Star center Al Horford dislocated his right pinkie finger going for a rebound early in the fourth quarter. X-rays were negative and he finished the game with his shooting hand heavily taped, giving Atlanta another concern on top of forward Paul Millsap, who looked out of sorts after missing five games late in the season with a sprained right shoulder. He managed just six points on 2-of-11 shooting.
“It’s going to be tough to just blow teams out,” Millsap said. “It’s the playoffs. You expect them to hang in there and fight hard.”
The Hawks led for all but the first 39 seconds and pushed the margin as high as 16 points, but the Nets kept coming back.
Korver hit five 3-pointers, the last of them with just over 3 minutes remaining after the Nets cut it to 88-83. Brooklyn got as close as 93-89 before Jeff Teague banked in a floater coming off the left wing with 1:19 to go.
Teague and DeMarre Carroll scored 17 points apiece for the Hawks.
Brooklyn finished 22 games behind the Hawks and slipped into the playoffs on the final day. But, with Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez each scoring 17 points, they didn’t look overmatched by a team that won the season series 4-0 and earned a No. 1 seed for the first time since 1994.
Afterward, coach Lionel Hollins told his players, “If you don’t believe you can play in this series, you should believe it now.”
Atlanta didn’t have much to play for over the final month of the season, seizing control in the East with a 19-game winning streak.
“This is going to be a tough series,” Johnson said. “This is one game. We’ve got to put it behind us.”
GRIZZLIES 100, TRAIL
BLAZERS 86: In Memphis, Tenn., reserve Beno Udrih scored 20 points and the Grizzlies never trailed in Game 1 of the Western Conference first-round series.
Zach Randolph had 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Marc Gasol added 15 points and 11 rebounds. Mike Conley finished with 16 points and didn’t play the fourth quarter. Jeff Green had 11.
LaMarcus Aldridge led Portland with 32 points while taking more shots than anyone had ever taken against Memphis in the postseason, going 13 of 34. Damian Lillard added 14 points, shooting 5 of 21 overall and 0 of 6 beyond the arc. Nicolas Batum had 15 points.
The Trail Blazers have lost five straight overall.
The Grizzlies swept Portland during the regular season and have won 10 of the last 11, including the first playoff game between the teams.
Game 2 is Wednesday night in Memphis.
Memphis started the postseason with home-court advantage for only the second time in franchise history, thanks to finishing with four more wins than Northwest Division champion Portland. The Grizzlies blew a 27-point lead in 2012 before losing that series to the Clippers, and they topped that lead going up by 29 late in the third quarter.
The banged-up and shorthanded Trail Blazers proved no threat to make that kind of comeback with Aldridge doing everything he could to keep them in the game.
Aldridge and Lillard combined to shoot 3 of 15 in the first quarter.
CLIPPERS 107, SPURS 92: In Los Angeles, Chris Paul scored 32 points, Blake Griffin added 26 points and 12 rebounds, and the Clippers surged in the second half for a victory over San Antonio in their first-round playoff series opener.
Jamal Crawford added 17 points for the Clippers, who met the defending NBA champions’ challenge in a difficult postseason-opening matchup for two powers.
Griffin threw down his usual array of roof-raising dunks, while Paul quarterbacked Los Angeles to an 18-point lead in the third quarter.
Kawhi Leonard scored 18 points for the Spurs, who had won the opening game in their previous 11 playoff series. Tim Duncan had 11 points and 11 rebounds, but the Spurs couldn’t rally from their hefty second-half deficit.
Game 2 is Wednesday night.