NBA Playoffs: Mavs and Pacers win on the road; Wolverhampton beat Suns again

Despite the incredible attacking talent of both teams, the match was a tense duel with rusty attacks and clearly superior defense, a minefield in which Luka Doncic They ended up celebrating.

The Slovenian, frustrating at times but deadly at key moments, finished with 32 points (11 of 26 on field goals, 5 of 14 on triples), 6 rebounds and 9 assists.. Kyrie Irving (23 points and 6 rebounds) and PJ Washington (18 points and 6 rebounds) were also irreplaceable.

In turn, Angelenos reinstated Kawhi Leonard, who hasn’t played since March 31 due to a mystery knee injury, and who had 15 points and seven rebounds in the starting lineup.

James Harden (22 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists) and Paul George (22 points) were the top scorers on the low-scoring Clippers (36.8% FG and 26.7% on 3s vs. 42.1% and 42). .4% respectively) of the Mavericks group).

The Pacers beat the Bucks 125-108 on Tuesday in Milwaukee, tying their first-round series in the East at 1-1. who now moves to Indiana and has the visiting team’s first win in these NBA playoffs (the Dallas Mavericks would arrive later), marked by the dominance of local teams thus far.

After 12 games with the home team winning, the Pacers broke that trend with 37 points (16 of 23 field goals), 11 rebounds and 6 assists from Pascal Siakam.

Myles Turner (22 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocked shots) and Andrew Nembhard (20 points) also scored for Indiana, and Tyrese Haliburton had 12 points and 12 assists.

Compared to their poor offensive performance in Game 1, Rick Carlisle’s men shot 55.6 percent from the field and scored 52 points in the paint to Milwaukee’s 36.

For the Bucks, again without the injured Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard was the top scorer with 34 points (26 of them in the first half).

Brook Lopez scored 22 points and Bobby Portis had 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Indiana will be at home for its next two games on Friday and Sunday this week.

The Suns lost again to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday, 105-93, and the first round in the West now goes to Phoenix, down 0-2 to the team of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker..

The Suns were ahead at halftime after a strong first half, 50-51, but they fell apart after the break with a cumulative score of 55-42 over the final two quarters and trailed by 19 points in the fourth quarter.

The Wolves’ defense, the best in the NBA this season, once again tormented the Suns, who were unable to keep their offense flowing from start to finish and gave up 19 possessions to allow the locals to score 31 points.

Also in the third quarter, Frank Vogel’s team lost Grayson Allen to injury, who again sprained his right ankle, which he had already injured in the first game against the Wolves.

Neither Durant nor Booker were able to improve the Arizona team: the forward was held to 18 points (6 of 15 shooting), while the guard could only add 18 (6 of 13) and committed six turnovers before being ejected for fouls in the final quarter.

Bradley Beal had an even worse night with 14 points on 6 of 17 shooting and 4 turnovers.

Jaden McDaniels (25 points) led the Wolves in scoring, while Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley scored 18 points each.. Dominican Karl-Anthony Towns scored 12 points.

The Chris Finch-led team didn’t even dominate the rebounding game like it did in Game 1 (39-41 to the Suns) and didn’t blame Anthony Edwards for his poor performance (15 points on 3-of-12 shooting).

The next two games will be in Phoenix on Friday and Sunday this week.