Durant, Warriors overcome Blazers’ dynamic duo

OAKLAND — Kevin Durant patted his chest after two big baskets in the fourth quarter and let everybody know “I got this!” Stephen Curry knocked down a timely baseline 3-pointer, reached his hand high and gestured to further ignite a raucous sellout crowd.

On a day Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum put on a dazzling display of shotmaking 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 at 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 runners-up take the first step in what it is counting on to be a championship run. Game 2 is Wednesday night in Oakland. ROCKETS 118, THUNDER 87: James Harden scored 37 points to outshine Russell Westbrook for host Houston. Game 2 is Wednesday night in Houston.

Harden, who along with Westbrook is a front-runner for MVP, went to the bench with Houston up 110-80. Westbrook had 22 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, but made just six of 23 shots and had nine turnovers for the sixth-seeded Thunder.

WIZARDS 114, HAWKS 107: John Wall scored a playoff career-high 32 points and Markieff Morris added 21 in his NBA playoff debut for host Washington. Wall scored 15 points in the third quarter and finished with 14 assists in the best playoff performance of his young career. Morris, in his first taste of the playoffs after 448 regular-season games, caught fire early in the second half to push Washington ahead, and the Wizards held on.

Bradley Beal had 22 points for the Wizards, who got enough from their top players to offset 25 points from Atlanta’s Dennis Schroder and 19 from Paul Millsap. Center Dwight Howard had 14 rebounds but just seven points for the Hawks.

—AP