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‘Big 3’ lead Cavaliers past Celtics in play-off Game 1

By AP - Apr 20,2015 - Last updated at Apr 20,2015

CLEVELAND — Kyrie Irving scored 30 points in his play-off debut and LeBron James added 20 in his first postseason game with Cleveland in five years as Cavaliers opened a run toward an NBA title with a 113-100 victory over Boston Celtics on Sunday.

Irving made five 3-pointers and Kevin Love, another postseason rookie, had 19 points and 12 rebounds.

It was Cleveland’s first home playoff game since May 11, 2010, when Celtics won Game 5 and James left the floor to some boos from Cavaliers fans. He departed for Miami two months later, but he’s home now, all is forgiven and Cleveland is aiming to end a championship drought dating to 1964.

Isaiah Thomas scored 22 points to lead the seventh-seeded Celtics. They will try to even the best-of-7 series in Game 2 on Tuesday night.

Clippers point guard Chris Paul scored 32 points, and Blake Griffin added 26 points and 12 rebounds, as Los Angeles surged in second half to beat San Antonio Spurs 107-92 in their first-round playoff series opener.

Jamal Crawford added 17 points for Clippers, who met the defending NBA champions’ challenge in a difficult postseason-opening matchup for two powers. Griffin threw down his usual array of roof-raising dunks, while Paul quarterbacked Los Angeles to an 18-point lead in the third quarter.

Kawhi Leonard scored 18 points for Spurs, who had won the opening game in their previous 11 playoff series. Tim Duncan had 11 points and 11 rebounds, but the Spurs couldn’t rally from their hefty second-half deficit.

Game 2 is Wednesday night.

In Atlanta, Kyle Korver scored 21 points, including five 3-pointers, as the top-seeded Hawks held off Brooklyn Nets 99-92 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference playoff series.

Hawks led nearly the entire game and pushed the margin as high as 16 points, but Nets kept coming back. Finally, Jeff Teague dropped in a floater coming off the left wing, giving Atlanta a 95-89 lead. Joe Johnson missed a 3-pointer from the corner for Brooklyn, and Teague made a pair of free throws with just under a minute remaining to essentially seal it.

Teague and DeMarre Carroll scored 17 points apiece.

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Atlanta.

Memphis Grizzlies downed the Portland Trail Blazers 100-86 after reserve Beno Udrih scored 20 points in Game 1 of their Western Conference first-round series.

Zach Randolph had 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Marc Gasol added 15 points and 11 rebounds. Mike Conley finished with 16 points and didn’t play the fourth quarter. Jeff Green had 11.

LaMarcus Aldridge led Portland with 32 points while taking more shots than anyone had ever taken against Memphis in the postseason, going 13 of 34. Damian Lillard added 14 points, shooting 5 of 21 overall and 0 of 6 beyond the arc. Nicolas Batum had 15 points. Trail Blazers have lost five straight overall.

Game 2 is Wednesday night.

Meanhile, Toronto Raptors’ Nigerian-born general manager Masai Ujiri was fined $35,000 and the team docked $25,000 by the NBA on Sunday for his expletive Saturday talking about Washington forward Paul Pierce when addressing fans before Raptors’ play-off opener.

“People want me to say something about Paul Pierce but, we don’t give a [expletive] about ‘it’,” Ujiri told a cheering crowd outside the Air Canada Centre in an area dubbed Jurassic Park.

Ujiri was referring to the Wizards’ veteran who told ESPN he wasn’t worried about Raptors because “I don’t feel they have the ‘it’ that makes you worried.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver attended Raptors’ overtime loss in Game 1 of the first-round play-off series. Last year, Ujiri was fined $25,000 by the NBA for ending a speech with an expletive before the team’s postseason opener against the Brooklyn Nets.

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