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<\/a><\/p>\nDevin Booker recorded 38 points and nine assists, and the Phoenix Suns evened their first-round Western Conference playoff series at one game apiece with a 123-109 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
\nKevin Durant added 25 points, six rebounds and five assists as Phoenix rebounded from a Game 1 home loss. Kawhi Leonard registered 31 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals and Russell Westbrook added 28 points for the Clippers. Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Thursday night in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\nThe Clippers trailed by 13 points early in the fourth quarter, but Leonard made a 3-pointer and Westbrook sank two free throws to bring them within 115-109 with 3:13 left. But Los Angeles wouldn’t score again.<\/p>\n
\nChris Paul made a high-arching jumper, fed Deandre Ayton for a layup and then drilled a jumper from the top of the key to give the Suns a 121-109 lead with 2:01 remaining. Bismack Biyombo scored on a tip-in with 31.8 seconds left to account for a game-high 14-point lead as Phoenix closed it out.<\/p>\n
\nCeltics 119, Hawks 106<\/p>\n
\nJayson Tatum led five scorers in double figures with 29 points as Boston grabbed a 2-0 lead in its Eastern Conference first-round playoff series with a win over visiting Atlanta.<\/p>\n
\nTatum added 10 rebounds and six assists to lead the Boston offense. Derrick White added 26 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter. After Atlanta took an 11-point lead on De’Andre Hunter’s 3-pointer with 5:42 left in the first quarter, Boston outscored the Hawks 50-27 for the remainder of the first half and, for the most part, cruised from there.<\/p>\n
\nDejounte Murray led Atlanta with 29 points on seven 3-pointers. Trae Young scored 24 points, while Hunter supplied 18 points and 12 boards. The Hawks were just 16 of 48 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
\nCavaliers 107, Knicks 90<\/p>\n
\nDonovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley each posted double-doubles and Darius Garland helped key a decisive second-quarter surge for host Cleveland, which evened its Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with New York with a victory in Game 2.<\/p>\n
\nMitchell, the seventh-leading scorer in the NBA this season at 28.3 points per game, had just 17 points Tuesday but collected a career-high 13 assists. Mobley had 13 points and 13 rebounds while Garland scored 32 points, including 26 in the first half. Julius Randle scored 22 points in Game 2 for the Knicks, who shot just 36.7 percent from the field (29-for-79), including 24.1 percent (7-for-29) from 3-point land.<\/p>\n
\nThe teams traded runs in the first quarter, which began with Brunson and Randle scoring five points apiece as the Knicks took a 12-4 lead. Garland scored eight points as the Cavaliers responded with a 15-3 surge. New York then scored seven straight points before Cleveland scored the final six points and took the lead for good at 25-22 on LeVert’s 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds left.<\/p>\n
\n–Field Level Media<\/p>\n
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