Defending NBA champion San Antonio pulled off a critical 111-107 overtime win at the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday to square their Western Conference first-round playoff series at 1-1.
San Antonio blew 10-point leads in the third and fourth quarters, and only got into overtime on a pair of free throws by Patty Mills with 8 seconds left.
Veteran Tim Duncan, who finished with 28 points, scored four straight points in the extra session while playing with five fouls.
Los Angeles’ Blake Griffin had his first career playoff triple-double of 29 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. DeAndre Jordan had 20 points and 15 rebounds for the hosts.
Atlanta vs BrooklynIn the day’s other games, Atlanta survived a stern challenge from Brooklyn to take a 2-0 series lead with a 96-91 win.
Squandering an early 12-point lead, the Hawks fell behind before halftime and spent the rest of the game struggling to put away the No. 8 seed.
Paul Millsap top scored with 19 points for the Hawks, who will be on the road for the next two games, starting with Game 3 on Saturday.
Memphis vs Trail BlazersMemphis moved into uncharted territory with a 2-0 playoff series lead by defeating Portland 97-82.
Mike Conley and Courtney Lee each scored 18 points for the Grizzlies, who have taken full advantage of starting the playoffs with home-court advantage for only the second time in their history. They had only won their playoff opener once before, and that was on the road in San Antonio in 2011.
Marc Gasol had 15 points for Memphis while Zach Randolph and Beno Udrih added 10 apiece.
LaMarcus Aldridge led Portland with 24 points and 14 rebounds, and he also had four blocks with two steals.
