Jazz advance to face Rockets
SALT LAKE CITY — Rookie Donovan Mitchell scored 38 points to help Utah overpower Oklahoma City 96-91 on Friday night and advance to a Western Conference semifinal series against the Rockets.
The Jazz eliminated the Thunder in six games despite another outstanding performance from point guard Russell Westbrook, who had 46 points on 18-of-43 shooting and 10 rebounds to go with five assists.
Rudy Gobert had 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Jazz, who lost starting point guard Ricky Rubio to a left hamstring injury in the first quarter.
Utah went 31-10 in the second half of the season, second to the Rockets’ 35-6 finish to the season.
Game 1 of the RocketsJazz series will be at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Toyota Center.
PACERS 121, CAVALIERS 87
Victor Oladipo scored 28 points and posted the first postseason tripledouble of his career, leading the Indiana Pacers to a 121-87 blowout over the Cleveland Cavaliers to even the series at three.
Game 7 will be played Sunday at Cleveland.
The three-time defending Eastern Conference champs again were led by LeBron James with 22 points, seven assists and five rebounds despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter. Nobody else scored more than 13 points as the Cavaliers lost their first closeout game in 14 tries dating to 2009. James had won 11 consecutive closeout games and is 12-0 all-time in the first-round series.
With its season at stake, Indiana played hard, aggressive and tough.
And it showed with a record-breaking victory margin.
Kevin Love hurt his left wrist on a hard fall midway through the second quarter and wound up scoring just seven points while shooting 3-of-10 from the field.
But with a relaxed Oladipo figuring out how to defeat the Cavs' double teams, he rediscovered his shooting touch. Oladipo finished with 13 rebounds, 10 assists and was 11-of-19 from the field and 6-of-8 on 3s to keep the Pacers in charge most of the game.
RAPTORS 102, WIZARDS 92
Toronto overcame a halftime deficit in a road playoff game for the first time in 24 tries, using 24 points from Kyle Lowry and a tremendous effort from its finally whole second unit to beat Washington and end its series.
Toronto trailed by as many as 12 points in the first quarter and was down 53-50 at the end of the second. The Raptors' first lead did not come until the third quarter, and they were back down by five points entering the final period.
But with star guards Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, who had a personal series-low 16 points, resting to begin the fourth, reserves led by point guard Fred VanVleet turned around the game. Bothered by a bad right shoulder, VanVleet had played a total of three minutes in the series until Friday, but he was just what Toronto needed in this game, with five points and four assists.
The home team had won each of the first five games, but the Raptors were finally able to close things out.