Cavs Beat Hawks, Thunder Down Spurs

Rusty, rested or reeling, LeBron James and the Cavaliers find a way to beat the Hawks in the playoffs every time.

James scored 25 points, Kyrie Irving added 21, and Cleveland withstood a strong second-half surge by Atlanta to maintain its chokehold on the Hawks with a 104-93 victory Monday in the opening game of their second-round Eastern Conference playoff series.

James converted a critical 3-point play with 2:09 left for the Cavs, who blew an 18-point lead in the second half and fell behind with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter before making several clutch plays down the stretch.

Cleveland swept Atlanta in last year's Eastern Conference finals and has won eight straight over the Hawks. The Cavaliers are 9-0 against the Hawks in the postseason. This was by no means easy, however.

"We needed everything," said James, who gave his team just that, with nine assists, seven rebounds and five steals. "We played an OK game. I don't think we played to our standards. The first game is always kind of a feel-out."

Dennis Schroder scored a playoff career-high 27 and rallied the Hawks before they crumbled in the closing minutes. Atlanta's offense bogged down in crunch time, and the Hawks scored only two field goals in the final four minutes.

Paul Millsap had 17 points and 13 rebounds, and Kent Bazemore added 16 points for Atlanta, which got just eight points from Jeff Teague. Game 2 will be Wednesday night.

Thunder 98, Spurs 97

The Oklahoma City Thunder nearly gave away the game in a wild final sequence that referees acknowledge should have been blown dead before it started.

All that matters to the Thunder is that they're even with the San Antonio Spurs.

Russell Westbrook had 29 points and 10 assists, and the Thunder held on to beat San Antonio 98-97 on Monday night, evening the series at one game apiece when the Spurs failed to score in the final seconds.

Kevin Durant added 28 points as the Thunder handed the Spurs just their second home loss of the season, rebounding from a 32-point beating in Game 1.

With San Antonio trailing 98-97 with 13.5 seconds remaining and Oklahoma City out of timeouts, Thunder guard Dion Waiters elbowed Manu Ginobili to get the space needed to inbound the ball.

"On the floor, we did not see a foul on the play," referee Ken Mauer told a pool reporter. "However, upon review we realize and we agree that we should have had an offensive foul on the play. It's a play that we have never seen before, ever, but we feel we should have had an offensive foul on Waiters."

Monday, May 2 Scoreboard
    
Cleveland 104, Atlanta 93

EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS - GAME 1

Oklahoma City 98, San Antonio 97

WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS - GAME 2

Tuesday, May 3 Schedule (All Times Central)

Miami at Toronto, 7 p.m.

EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS - GAME 1

Portland at Golden State, 9:30 p.m.

WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS - GAME 2