The Celtics achieved a 106-93 comeback victory over the Cavs, while the Mavericks led by Luka Doncic defeated the OKC Thunder 105-101.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined to score 61 points to lead the Boston Celtics to a bounce-back NBA playoff victory over Cleveland while Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic led Dallas over Oklahoma City.
Tatum scored 33 points and Brown 28 as top-seeded Boston, upset by the Cavaliers on their home court in Game 2, beat the Cavs 106-93 in Cleveland to take a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal. best of seven. Saturday.
For Dallas, Irving scored 14 of his 22 points in the second half and Doncic scored 22 points and grabbed 15 rebounds as the Mavericks rallied for a 105-101 victory that put them up 2-1 against the Western Conference's top seeds. , Oklahoma City.
The Celtics emerged from a tense first quarter with a two-point lead and never trailed again.
“We just wanted to bounce back,” Tatum said after they increased their lead to 23 points by opening the third quarter with a 14-0 scoring run.
“Basically our back was against the wall, so it was a good test for us to see how we respond,” Tatum said. “We were up for the challenge.”
Donovan Mitchell scored 33 points for the Cavaliers, but appeared to injure his troublesome left knee in the fourth quarter.
Cleveland stopped Boston's run in the third quarter with a 9-0 run.
But the Celtics had an answer for every Cleveland attack and the Cavs couldn't get closer than nine points in the fourth quarter.
In Dallas, the Mavericks struggled against another strong defensive effort from the Thunder.
Irving's stellar second-half turn included a floater that pushed Dallas' lead to five points with 39.3 seconds left.
🏆 FINAL RESULTS FOR SATURDAY 🏆
PJ Washington remains at 29 on Thursday with 27 today as the @dallasmavs gets the win at home and takes a 2-1 lead in the series!
Kyrie: 22 PTS, 5 REB, 7 AST
Luka: 22 PTS, 15 REB, 5 AST
SGA: 31 PTS, 10 REB, 6 AST, 5 BLKG4: Monday, 9:30 p.m. on TNT pic.twitter.com/1D4Cnz7bQ9
—NBA (@NBA) May 11, 2024
Irving 'doing it all'
Slovenian star Doncic took another hit, including falling hard on his back after a mid-air collision with Luguentz Dort, and said he sprained his right knee when the game ended.
“We got the victory, that's the only thing that matters,” said Doncic, who when asked what hurt the most, the knee, the back or the ankle, answered “everything.”
“I think I'm struggling,” he said. A day without travel before the Mavs' fourth game on Monday was welcome, she added.
PJ Washington led the Mavs with 27 points and Dereck Lively added 12 off the bench to help Dallas withstand a 31-point performance from Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Both teams struggled to get their offenses firing in the first quarter, which ended with Dallas up by three.
Oklahoma City shot 60 percent in the second quarter to take a 52-51 halftime lead and increased its lead to 65-55 with an 11-0 scoring explosion in the third.
The Mavs responded with a 16-0 run that included a big dunk by Washington and was capped by his three-pointer that pushed their lead to 71-65.
The run energized the American Airlines Center crowd, but Oklahoma City quickly cut the lead to one before the Mavs responded again.
Irving hit a pair of 3-pointers and fed Daniel Gafford for a dunk before Tim Hardaway Jr closed out the third quarter with a 3-pointer that put Dallas up 82-78.
Irving, who dished out seven assists while focusing early on getting his teammates involved, said a Dallas coach told him he was a little late trying to score.
But Doncic said his contribution was “unbelievable.”
“He's doing everything on both ends of the court,” Doncic said.
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said his young team, with an average age of just over 23, got a little sloppy in the third quarter and blew a golden opportunity to get a win in Dallas.
“There are many things we can learn from,” he said.
