By ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON (AP) — In his playoff debut this weekend Jalen Green admitted that playoff jitters got the best of him.
“The lights were bright, the crowd was here, the court looked huge,” he said. “So I couldn’t really get a chance to settle in. My legs was a little shaky.”
Things were much different Wednesday night, April 23.
Green made eight 3-pointers and scored 38 points to lead the Houston Rockets to a 109-94 victory over the Golden State Warriors in a testy matchup to even the first-round Western Conference series at one game apiece.
“I feel like a did a good job of answering back,” he said. “From the beginning my whole mindset from today was to go in and be aggressive and get back to being myself.”
The seventh-seeded Warriors never led and played short-handed for most of the night after Jimmy Butler left with a pelvis contusion after a hard fall on a foul late in the first quarter.
Green, the No. 2 pick in the 2021 draft, rebounded from a flop in his playoff debut, when he scored just seven points on 3-of-15 shooting, with a dominant Game 2.
His eight 3-pointers were two more than the No. 2-seeded Rockets made on 6-of-29 shooting in a 95-85 Game 1 loss.
Alperen Sengun had 17 points and 16 rebounds for the Rockets. Tari Eason had 14 points off the bench.
Coach Ime Udoka raved about the combination of Green and Sengun.
“When they’re both rolling, we’re hard to beat,” he said.
Game 2 is Saturday night at Golden State.
Stephen Curry had 20 points and nine assists for the Warriors and become the 11th player in NBA history to reach 4,000 career playoff points. He finished the night with 4,017.
“He did a great job,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We just didn’t have enough tonight.”
Houston led by 20 with about 10 minutes left before the Warriors used a 9-0 run, with two 3s from Quinten Post, run to get within 11. Jalen Green was called for a flagrant foul on Draymond Green at the end of that run after he flailed an arm into his face.
Meanwhile, Donovan Mitchell delivered when the Cleveland Cavaliers needed him most.
After the Miami Heat seized momentum and appeared on the verge of possibly tying the series, Mitchell took over. He scored Cleveland’s next eight points and the Cavaliers held on for a 121-112 for a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
“I love the fact the game happened like this. We had to really find a way as a group and then we responded,” said Mitchell, who led Cleveland with 30 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter. “I kept trying to find the mismatch and make a play.”
It was the 27th career playoff game with at least 30 points for Mitchell, who also had six rebounds and six assists.
In Boston, as it became evident that All-Star Jayson Tatum would have to sit out Game 2 of the Celtics’ first-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic, Jaylen Brown wanted Boston coach Joe Mazzulla to know something.
“He came in saying he was going to do everything it takes to win,” Mazzulla said.
Brown came through on that promise. And his teammates followed his lead.
Brown had 36 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, Kristaps Porzingis returned to the game after getting a bloody gash to the forehead and finished with 20 points, and the Celtics beat the Magic 109-100.
