MORANT SCORES 47, TAKES OVER DOWN THE STRETCH
Ja Morant scored 47 points to match his postseason high and carry the Memphis Grizzlies into a tie in the Western Conference semifinals with a 106-101 victory over the visiting Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.
Morant scored the last 15 points for Memphis, starting with 4:16 left. He drove and turned around a defender before hitting a 7-foot jumper with 1:42 left to put Memphis ahead to stay at 100-99. He added four free throws and a 9-footer, finishing with 18 in the fourth quarter.
The NBA’s Most Improved Player, who also had 47 in Game 2 against Utah last year, became only the third player in league history to have multiple 45-point games in the postseason before turning 23. The other two? LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.
Ziaire William hit four 3s and finished with 14 points off the bench. Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 12 points before fouling out for the third time in eight games this postseason. Brandon Clarke added 10 points.
Now the youngest team to reach the semifinal round in the last 25 years heads to San Francisco for Game 3 on Saturday night knowing the series will return to Memphis for Game 5.
Stephen Curry finished with 27 points on 3-of-11 shooting outside the arc. Jordan Poole added 20 off the bench but was 1 of 6 from 3. Andrew Wiggins had 16, going 1 of 7 from 3. Klay Thompson finished with 12 points and was 2 of 12 from 3. The Warriors shot just 7 of 38 from 3-point range.
The Warriors, in the semifinals for the seventh time in 10 years, had their chances. Trailing 104-101, Curry passed to Green, who tossed it to Thompson, who traveled with 17 seconds left. Morant hit two free throws for the final margin.
The Grizzlies are coming off the franchise’s first series win in seven years. But a team that was the NBA’s second-youngest squad during the regular season is trying to take Memphis past the second round, something this franchise has done only once back in 2013.
It didn’t get easier when Dillon Brooks, averaging 15 points this postseason and whose job was defending Curry, was ejected with 9:08 left in the first quarter
Grizzlies 106, Warriors 101
after a hard foul on Warriors guard Gary Payton II. Payton went to the locker room for X-rays on his left elbow. He didn’t return.
Green, ejected from Game 1 for his own Flagrant 2, went down a couple minutes after Brooks’ ejection. He went to the locker room, flashing the middle digit on each hand at the fans. He returned for the second quarter after getting stitches for a cut at his right eye that was nearly swollen shut by halftime.
Celtics 109, Bucks 86: Jaylen Brown scored 25 of his 30 points in the first half, and host Boston beat Milwaukee to even their second-round playoff at one game apiece.
Brown shook off a dismal shooting night in Game 1, going 9 for 10 in the first half, including 5 for 5 from the 3-point line. Jayson Tatum added 19 points and eight assists. Al Horford had 14 points and 11 rebounds.
The series doesn’t resume until Game 3 on Saturday in Milwaukee.
The Celtics clamped down on Giannis Antetokounmpo after his triple-double in the series opener, limiting him to 28 points — mostly in the third quarter — nine rebounds and seven assists. Jrue Holiday added 19 points and seven assists. Bobby Portis chipped in 13 points and eight rebounds.
Monday’s late game
Suns 121, Mavericks 114: Deandre Ayton scored 25 points, Devin Booker added 23 and top-seeded Phoenix rolled over visiting Dallas in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.
Luka Doncic led the Mavericks with 45 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
Game 2 is today in Phoenix.
Notable
Tyler Herro was told before the season began that he wouldn’t be in the Miami Heat starting lineup. To his credit, he saw that as an opportunity.
“I said, ‘Let’s go for Sixth Man of the Year,’ ” Herro said.
And that’s what he got, in a landslide over Kevin Love of the Cavaliers and Cameron Johnson of the Suns.