WIZARDS 93, RAPTORS 86, OT
TORONTO -- Paul Pierce beat the Raptors with a veteran mix of brains and baskets.
Pierce scored five of his 20 points in overtime, Nene had 12 points and 13 rebounds, and the Washington Wizards beat Toronto 93-86 on Saturday in Game 1 of their first-round NBA Eastern Conference playoff series.
"It takes the pressure off us and puts it on them now," Pierce said of winning on the road to start the series.
Pierce hit a three-pointer, his fourth of the game, to begin the overtime, further tormenting a Raptors team he eliminated with Brooklyn in last year's playoffs, then derided this week by saying, "I don't feel they have the 'It' that makes you worried," in an interview with ESPN.
"He was really big," Wizards Coach Randy Wittman said. "I thought the three he hit to start the overtime was big [for] momentum."
Bradley Beal scored 16, while John Wall and Kevin Seraphin each had 10 for the Wizards.
Amir Johnson scored 18 points and DeMar DeRozan had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Raptors, who have yet to win the opening game of a first-round series in seven postseason appearances.
Toronto hosts Game 2 on Tuesday night.
Badgered by taunts from a vocal sellout crowd, Pierce also drew the ire of Toronto's general manager. Masai Ujiri, who was fined $25,000 after he used a profanity about Brooklyn at the start of last year's series, used another profanity in a pregame speech to thousands of fans watching on a big screen outside the arena.NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, called Ujiri's comments "not appropriate."
"Typical Ujiri," Pierce smirked when told about it after the game. "You heard what he said last year when I was in Brooklyn.
"You've just got to embrace it," Pierce said of being the villain. "It's not that I'm a bad guy. Everybody knows I'm a good guy, I mean off the court. That's just the role you portray to media on the court, on the road. Everybody is booing you, no one likes you. I embrace it. It fuels me, truthfully."
Wittman said he picked Pierce's brain before the series about what Brooklyn did to beat Toronto last year, and Pierce's experience in winning an NBA title with Boston.
"It's a unique situation having a guy like him," Wittman said. "If I don't take advantage of having a guy who's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer and pick his brain, then I'm not doing a very good job."
Washington led by more than 10 points in the second half, but Greivis Vasquez, who came on after All-Star Kyle Lowry fouled out, tied it at 82-82 by hitting a three-pointer with 25 seconds left.
"We didn't get discouraged when they tied it up, we just stayed confident with each other," Pierce said.
Neither team scored again until Pierce made a three-pointer 36 seconds into overtime, the first basket in a 7-0 Wizards run. Toronto missed seven consecutive shots before DeRozan's dunk with 29 seconds left.
The Raptors' only Game 1 victory came over Philadelphia in the second round of the 2001 playoffs.
Lou Williams, Patrick Patterson and Vasquez each had 10 points for the Raptors, whose bench outscored the starting five 48-38.
DeRozan, Lowry and Terrence Ross shot a combined 11 for 41, including a 0-for-11 performance from three-point range.
"We just missed a lot of easy shots," DeRozan said.
More than the poor shooting, Raptors Coach Dwane Casey said he wasn't happy that his team got outrebounded 61-48. Washington had 19 offensive rebounds.
"Until we make [rebounding] a priority, it's going to be hard for us," Casey said.
Three of the past five meetings between the Wizards and Raptors have gone into overtime, including one triple-overtime game.
WARRIORS 106, PELICANS 99
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Stephen Curry scored 34 points with an MVP-worthy performance, and the Golden State Warriors went up big before holding off the New Orleans Pelicans in their NBA Western Conference playoff opener.
Klay Thompson added 21 points, and Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut dominated down low as the Warriors looked every bit like the NBA's top seed -- at least for three quarters. They smothered Anthony Davis and the Pelicans with the league's best defense, thrilling a gold shirt-wearing sellout crowd of 19,596.
The Warriors led by 15 after the first quarter, 18 at the half and 25 late in the third. The Pelicans pulled within four in the final minute behind Davis, who scored 20 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, to make the game closer than it really was.
Game 2 of the series is Monday night in Oakland, where the Warriors have won 19 consecutive.
Davis shot 13 of 23 from the floor and grabbed seven rebounds in his playoff debut. Quincy Pondexter scored 20 points and Eric Gordon added 16 for the Pelicans, who shot 42.2 percent.
That was because of Golden State's defensive stoppers, Green and Bogut, who played well on both ends. Pelicans point guard Tyreke Evans also left in the first half with a bruised left knee and did not return.
Green finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists. Bogut had 12 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists.
The Warriors won a franchise-record 67 games, going a league-best 39-2 at home.
BULLS 103, BUCKS 91
CHICAGO — Derrick Rose had 23 points and seven assists in his first postseason game in three years, Jimmy Butler scored 25 points, and the Chicago Bulls opened the playoffs with a victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Rose was at his fearless best, driving hard to the rim in the early going, and mixed in 3 three-pointers in the second half. He shot 9 of 16 and got serenaded with “MVP! MVP!” chants.
It was quite a night for a superstar point guard making his first playoff appearance since he tore a knee ligament in the 2012 playoff opener against Philadelphia.
Chicago hosts Game 2 on Monday.
ROCKETS 118, MAVERICKS 108
HOUSTON — James Harden had 24 points and Corey Brewer scored 13 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Houston Rockets to a victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of their Western Conference series. Brewer made 3 three-pointers in about 3 minutes in the fourth to keep the Mavericks at bay. He added another three points when he made a layup and a free throw to give Houston a 109-95 lead with 3 minutes left. Houston won the opener in the bestof-seven series after losing both home games last season in a first-round loss to Portland.
Sports on 04/19/2015