Wizards, Warriors earn home playoff victories
WASHINGTON (AP) — After John Wall told Markieff Morris what to expect in his NBA playoff debut, the Washington Wizards' All-Star guard showed everyone his postseason best.
Wall scored a playoff career-high 32 points and dished out 14 assists and Morris added 21 points as the Wizards rebounded from a rough second quarter to beat the Atlanta Hawks 114-107 Sunday in Game 1 of their first-round series. Feeding off Morris' hot start to the second half, Wall scored 15 points in the third quarter alone as Washington pulled away to take the series lead.
"John can take over games, he can take over quarters, he can take over plays," coach Scott Brooks said. "He's a tremendous competitor and he plays with toughness and he gets shots — 32 and 14, that's high level All-Star game."
Wall hadn't forgotten the five fractures in his left hand and wrist that cost him three games against Atlanta two years ago, a series Washington lost as a result. Conscious that he couldn't do it all himself, Wall embraced the role as defensive stopper and facilitator on Sunday.
Seconds after feeding Morris for a dunk in his monster third quarter, Wall pointed to the court to deliver the message: "This is my house."
"I play with a lot of energy, a lot of intensity," Wall said. "When I'm not being aggressive like that and into it, I'm not a great player. But when I'm into it like that, if I'm scoring or my teammates are scoring, I'm always going to be hyped."
Even as each team shot 28 percent from 3-point territory, scoring wasn't a problem. Wizards guard Bradley Beal didn't let a 3 for 10 start stunt his confidence, and he finished 6 of 11 for 22 points.
"He's like, just reboot the computer every miss and just focus on making the next shot," Brooks said.
That offense from Wall, Beal and Morris was enough to offset 25 points from Atlanta's Dennis Schroder and 19 from Paul Millsap, who wasn't pleased with Washington's physicality and exchanged words with Morris going into halftime.
"The difference in the game is we were playing basketball and they were playing MMA," Millsap said.
Despite the Hawks making 39 trips to the free-throw line, compared to the Wizards' 17, the difference was the third quarter when Morris and Wall took over.
"They were more aggressive than us in the third quarter on both ends," Atlanta coach Mike Budenholzer said. "Usually the aggressor is rewarded." tured to further ignite a raucous sellout crowd.
On a day Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum put on a dazzling display of shot-making for Portland, the NBA's top-seeded team of superstars found its touch down the stretch and defended with purpose.
Durant had 32 points and 10 rebounds in his Golden State playoff debut, Curry scored 29 points, and the Warriors withstood that sensational day by the Trail Blazers' dynamic backcourt duo to win Game 1 of the first-round series 121-109 on Sunday.
McCollum scored a playoff career-best 41 points, and Lillard had 34, but the Warriors made the crucial big plays on both ends down the stretch with Portland missing injured center Jusuf Nurkic.
"When they got it going, they're hitting tough shots in the first half, some you've just got to live with, we played great defense," Curry said. "They were just able to finish, but over the course of 48 you just try to wear them down."
Draymond Green had 19 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists, five blocked shots and three steals to help last season's second-place team take the first step in what it is counting on to be a championship run.
Durant shot 12 for 20, showing no issues with a recent left knee injury that sidelined him 19 games before he returned for the final three regular-season contests with the NBA-best Warriors.
"The game ratchets up when you get into the playoffs," Durant said. "I definitely felt good out there."
Game 2 is Wednesday night at Oracle Arena.
The opener in a rematch of last season's Western Conference semifinals won in five games by Golden State didn't disappoint featuring two of the NBA's best backcourt duos. There was a little of everything: physical play, trash talk, deep 3-pointers, monster blocked shots and dazzling dunks. After one flurry of a third-quarter sequence when several players on both teams hit the floor trying to secure a loose ball, four towel guys frantically wiped down the court.
Durant got going fast. KD drove the lane for a one-handed slam midway through the first then knocked down a 3 from the top about a minute later. After missing a dunk but getting fouled, Durant pounded the basket stanchion with his right fist in frustration.
He vowed to take his game to another level as a new season begins — not to mention the quest for his first title.
As the final period got underway, Ian Clark did what he often does to give the Blazers fits and chipped in during a 15-2 run on the way to 12 points off the bench. The 6-foot-3 guard scored a putback off his own miss in the paint one possession then knocked down a 3-pointer the next as Golden State went ahead 97-90 with 8:59 remaining.