The top-seeded Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder have rolled to convincing victories in their opening NBA playoff series.
Eastern Conference top seeds Boston laid down a marker with a 120-95 rout of the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers at the TD Garden on Tuesday.
Oklahoma City, meanwhile, were made to work harder by Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks before finally pulling clear to seal a 117-95 victory in their Western Conference semifinal series opener.
In Boston, Jaylen Brown scored 32 points while Derrick White added 25, including seven three-pointers, in an emphatic win for the Celtics, who are chasing a record 18th NBA championship.
Advertisement
Boston were in complete control for most of the game, holding a double-digit lead through the second half to close out an emphatic win at the TD Garden.
Boston star Jayson Tatum added 18 points but had an off-night shooting-wise, making just 7-of-19 from the field.
Donovan Mitchell led the scoring for Cleveland with 33 points, with Evan Mobley adding 17 and Darius Garland 14.
Brown said the Celtics’ defence had laid the foundation for the win.
“It starts with defence, we wanted to set the tone on defence and we kept them under 100 (points),” Brown told TNT television.
Advertisement
“But we feel like we’ve got an answer for everything so we just play the game the right way, and see what they want to take away and then we play after that.”
Game two in the series takes place in Boston on Thursday.
🏆 TUESDAY’S FINAL SCORES 🏆
Jaylen Brown comes out in attack mode, scoring 15 in the 1st, on way to 32 for the game as the @celtics take Game 1!
In Oklahoma City (OKC), the Thunder and the Mavericks fought a nip-and-tuck duel before the top seeds pulled away decisively in the fourth quarter.
Trailing by nine points at half-time, Dallas rallied in the third quarter to get within one point at 66-65.
But the youthful Thunder lineup began to find their range, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander adding 10 points in the third quarter to help OKC build a 10-point cushion heading into the fourth quarter.
Oklahoma City’s barrage of scoring continued in the fourth with Jalen Williams adding 10 points as the Thunder outscored their visitors 28-16 to seal victory by a 22-point margin.
Advertisement
Gilgeous-Alexander led the OKC scoring, finishing with 29 points, nine rebounds and nine assists while Chet Holmgren added 19 points and Williams 18.
Kyrie Irving led Dallas with 20 points while Luka Doncic, struggling with a sore knee, finished with 19 after shooting six-of-19 from the field.
Oklahoma City, who have an average age of just over 23, are the youngest team to win a second-round playoff game and were the youngest team to win a postseason series after sweeping the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round.
“We don’t worry about all the statistics and the stats, and how young we are,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after the win. “We just want to win basketball games at a high level and that’s what we focus on.
“We try to get that done every night and tonight we did so.”
Advertisement
Doncic said the Mavericks would need to improve dramatically for Game Two taking place in Oklahoma City on Thursday.
The Slovenian star brushed off questions about his own shooting performance.
“Who cares? We lost. We’ve just got to move on to the next one. I’ve got to be better, we’ve got to be better,” Doncic said.
“They’re a great defensive team and a great offensive team, so it’s not going to be easy at all. We’re going to have to play very good basketball, focused basketball, for 48 minutes.”
Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic has the ball stripped as he drives between Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and forward Jalen Williams [Alonzo Adams/USA Today Sports]
The ACC has released the Initial Availability Report for Boston College and Georgia Tech two days ahead of their matchup.
At the moment, Georgia Tech has one player listed as out in long snapper Will Benton IV.
Boston College, on the other hand, will be down multiple players.
The players listed out are linebacker Daveon Crouch, wide receiver Jaedn Skeete, wide receiver Johnathan Montague Jr., linebacker Jaylen Blackwell, defensive back Syair Torrence, defensive back Marcelous Townsend, defensive back Cameron Martinez, wide receiver Will Graves III, defensive lineman Micah Amedee, wide receiver Bryce Dopson, tight end Danny Edgehille, defensive lineman Ty Clemons, defensive lineman Onye Nwosisi, defensive tackle Owen Stoudmire, and defensive lineman Chuck Nnaeto.
Advertisement
The Eagles also have one player placed as questionable and seven as probable.
The questionable player is defensive back Amari Jackson and the probable players include defensive back Omar Thornton, defensive back Max Tucker, defensive back TJ Green, defensive back Ashton McShane, defensive lineman E’Lla Boykin, offensive lineman Michael Crounse, and wide receiver Cedric Lott Jr.
Boston College head coach Bill O’Brien shared after practice on Thursday morning that Skeete was out for the season after suffering a shoulder injury in practice after the Notre Dame game, but is expecting to return to the program next season.
“No, he won’t be back,” said O’Brien. “He hurt his shoulder in practice the week after the Notre Dame game. But he’ll be back. I would tell you that he won’t be back this year, but I would anticipate him being back next year.”
In October, O’Brien shared that Torrence, Skeete, and Crouch were out for the season. Crouch and Skeete did end up returning for BC’s 25-10 loss to Notre Dame on Nov. 1, but have not played since.
Advertisement
”No Bam [Crouch], I don’t think Bam will be able to return,” said O’Brien on Oct. 21. “Skeete won’t be able to return. Amari might. Amari might, not this game. Syair no, out for the season. There’s others, but yeah. [Jude] Bowry will be back. [Eryx] Daugherty won’t play in this game. So yeah, but there’s probably others. That’s off the top of my head.”
The conference will release an updated Availability Report on Friday and a final one on Saturday prior to kickoff.
A woman out for a run along the Charles in Boston couldn’t believe her eyes on Tuesday morning — floating on the water was a little reptile.
“I looked a little bit closer and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! That’s a baby alligator!” Whitney Lieberman told NBC10 Boston.
She took some video of the animal encounter, just a crawl away from the Hatch Memorial Shell along the Esplanade.
“I was so caught off guard that I didn’t think to grab anyone else and say is anyone else seeing what I’m seeing here,” Lieberman said.
Advertisement
Animal educator Joseph Kenney, of Joe’s Crazzy Critters, said the video does show an American alligator, and said it’s not dangerous, though the cold weather in Boston is dangerous to the animal.
And after he spoke to us, Kenney went out to find the gator.
“Actually in that same area — you guys had sent me the location after we spoke — he was tucked into some reeds, kind of along the edge there, in about a foot-and-a-half of water,” Kenney said. “He was just tucked in and laying on the bottom.”
In his social media post, Kenney explained that it took him just 15 minutes to locate the animal.
“With some luck and a couple of bright flashlights after 15 minutes I found the Boston alligator. I was able to capture him safely and he will be warm and housed until we get more information and instructions on what’s next for this little guy,” he wrote.
Advertisement
MassWildlife told Boston.com that they’d seen videos of the alligator and were working with other agencies to catch it before the cold does.
A man sustained life-threatening injuries after being shot in Dorchester Tuesday afternoon, Boston Police said.
Officers went to 77 Bowdoin Ave. at 3:15 p.m. for a report of a person shot, said Sgt. Det. John Boyle, the department’s chief spokesman. At the scene, police found a man had been shot and took him to a hospital.
The man’s injuries were initially believed to be non-life-threatening, but police later said his injuries were more severe.
Homicide detectives were called to the scene, Boyle said.
The shooting remains under investigation and no arrests have been made, Boyle said.
Advertisement
Charlie McKenna is a reporter on the public safety team at MassLive. Based in Boston, he covers the entire state. Before joining MassLive, McKenna worked for The Daily Item, where he covered Saugus, and on The…
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
