NBA PLAYOFFS
Wade, Heat sizzle, beat
MIAMI (AP) | Dwyane Wade scored 38 points, James Jones set a Miami postseason record with 25 points off the bench, and the Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics 99-90 on Sunday to open their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
LeBron James finished with 22 points, six rebounds and five assists for Miami, which led by as many as 19 before a fiery finish that saw plenty of players jawing at each other -more than that in some cases. Paul Pierce was ejected with 7 minutes left, after picking up two technicals in skirmishes with Wade and Jones within a span of 59 seconds.
Ray Allen scored 25 points for Boston, which lost for the first time in five games this postseason. Pierce scored 19 and Delonte West finished with 10 for the Celtics, while Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett were held to a combined 14 points on 6-for-19 shooting. Game 2 is Tuesday in Miami.
It was physical throughout, with West earning a technical and Jermaine O’Neal picking up a flagrant foul along the way, before the situation intensified in the fourth. Pierce took offense with a hard foul by Jones, each getting double-technicals there, and Pierce and Wade who have a bit of history renewed acquaintances not long after that.
Referee Ed Malloy called both for double-technicals.
Randolph, Gasol lead Grizzlies past Thunder in Game 1
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) | Zach Randolph had 34 points and 10 rebounds, Marc Gasol added 20 points and 13 boards, and the Memphis Grizzlies overpowered the Oklahoma City Thunder inside for a 114-101 victory in the opening game of the Western Conference semifinals Sunday.
Just as they did in a first-round upset of top-seeded San Antonio, Randolph and Gasol provided enough punch to give eighth-seeded Memphis a road victory in Game 1.
Randolph and Gasol each scored 20 points in the same regular-season game only once this season, but did it in Game 1 against the Spurs and again to negate the Thunder’s home-court advantage right from the start.
Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 33 points and 11 rebounds. Russell Westbrook scored 29, but the All-Star tandem couldn’t overcome a big advantage in the paint for Memphis
The Grizzlies, the NBA’s most productive team in the paint with a 51.5-point average, racked up 52 against the Thunder, who had bolstered their interior defense with their trade deadline pickup of Kendrick Perkins from Boston.
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