By Field Level Media
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Jaden McDaniels collected 25 points with nine rebounds and Anthony Edwards added 22 points, eight rebounds and nine assists as the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves rolled to a 117-95 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in the opener of a first-round Western Conference playoff series on Saturday.

Naz Reid scored 23 points and Julius Randle had 16 as the No. 6 seed Timberwolves improved to 5-0 in first-round games over the past two seasons.

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Minnesota shot 51.2 percent from the floor and went 21 of 42 from 3-point range while continuing its success from the end of the regular season, when it closed with a 17-4 record.

“It was just going out and playing with confidence,” McDaniels said on the ABC broadcast. “I know all my teammates trust me. (Edwards) always tells me, shoot the ball no matter what, miss or make, and that’s what I did tonight.”

On an otherwise ideal night, the Timberwolves saw Edwards depart to the locker room late in the third quarter with an apparent left leg injury before he returned in the fourth quarter. Reid was also injured late in the game.

Luka Doncic scored 37 points with eight rebounds, and LeBron James added 19 points for the No. 3 seed Lakers, who shot 39.8 percent from the floor and lacked the energy present after Doncic was acquired in a February trade from the Dallas Mavericks.

Austin Reaves had 16 points after a slow start for Los Angeles, which was outscored 25-6 on fast-break points and 43-13 in bench points.

Game 2 in the series is set for Tuesday at Los Angeles.

The Lakers owned the first quarter, taking a 28-21 lead before the Timberwolves took charge in the second quarter to take a 59-48 lead into halftime. Minnesota shot 54.2 percent in the second quarter while scoring 38 points.

The Timberwolves punctuated their second-quarter domination when Donte DiVincenzo made a 30-foot 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer.

“Obviously we need to do a better job of controlling the controllables and I don’t think we did a good enough job … once they blitzed us in that second quarter,” said James. “The 3-point shooting, we know they have a lot of lasers, a lot of guys who can shoot from the perimeter so we have to do a better job of closing out on bodies.”

The Timberwolves continued their push into the second half, opening on an 11-0 run to take a 70-48 lead less than two minutes into the third quarter.

Minnesota had an 88-64 lead when Edwards landed hard after a drive to the basket and walked back to the locker room with 2:58 left in the third quarter. He checked back into the game with 10:57 remaining in the game.

Reid departed with 9:26 remaining after taking an inadvertent elbow to the head from the Lakers’ Jarred Vanderbilt.

Knicks go on 21-0 burst, beat the Pistons 123-112

Jalen Brunson overcame a slow start to score 34 points as the New York Knicks dominated the fourth quarter in a 123-112 victory over the visiting Detroit Pistons in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals on Saturday.

Game 2 will be Monday in New York before the series shifts to Detroit on Thursday.

The Knicks overcame an eight-point deficit by outscoring the Pistons 33-14 over the final 9:16. New York seized control with a massive 21-0 run that spanned nearly 4 1/2 minutes and gave the Knicks a 111-98 lead.

“You got to win games (in) different ways,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Obviously you prefer not to be down eight points but that’s what the situation was and then just find a way to win.”

Brunson scored eight points in the burst — all in the paint — and gave the Knicks the lead for good when his difficult 2-footer over Tim Hardaway Jr. with 7:16 left snapped a 98-98 tie.

Brunson started 2-for-13 but hit his final two shots of the first half and finished 12 of 27 for the game. He also appeared to tweak his ankle twice in the final few minutes of the third quarter and eventually made a a brief trip to the locker room. He helped the Knicks outscore Detroit 40-21 in the fourth.

“I think he grabbed his cape,” Thibodeau said of Brunson.

Added forward OG Anunoby: “Jalen’s a great player. So I’m not surprised by it all. That’s what he does.”

Anunoby added 19 of his 23 points in the first half and Karl Anthony-Towns contributed 13 of his 23 in the second half to go along with 11 rebounds and five assists overall. Reserve Cameron Payne added 14 points, including the tying 3-pointer in New York’s extended run.

Josh Hart overcame foul trouble before halftime and contributed 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists overall for New York, which shot 70.8 percent in the fourth quarter and 52.7 percent overall.

Tobias Harris led the Pistons with 25 points, but Detroit dropped its 15th straight postseason game dating to Game 4 of the 2008 Eastern Conference finals.

Cade Cunningham collected 21 points and 12 assists, but also committed six of Detroit’s 21 turnovers in his postseason debut after helping the Pistons win three of the four regular-season meetings with New York.

“The turnovers led to easy baskets for them,” Harris said. “You can look at the last three, four minutes, too many fastbreak layups. When certain guys got in there and got hot from 3, that hurt us.”

Malik Beasley finished with 20 and Hardaway contributed 19 as the Pistons shot 31.8 percent (7-of-22) in the fourth and 47.7 percent overall.

Harris hit a 3-pointer right before halftime to get the Pistons within 57-55 at the break, and then Detroit dominated the final 5:49 of the third. A basket by Towns forged a 72-72 tie, but the Pistons ended the quarter with a 19-11 run and took a 91-83 lead into the fourth.

Pacers outclass Bucks in playoff series opener

Andrew Nembhard and Pascal Siakam combined for 27 points in a runaway first half, Tyrese Haliburton directed a high-efficiency offense with 12 total assists and the Indiana Pacers thumped the visiting Milwaukee Bucks 117-98 to open their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series on Saturday afternoon.

Siakam finished with 25 points, Myles Turner added 19 and Nembhard had 17, helping the fourth-seeded Pacers gain the early edge in the best-of-seven against a team that beat them three of four in the regular season, including once on Indiana’s floor.

“The series is one-seventh over. Game 2 will be monumentally more difficult than this game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “The ebbs and flow of a series are so up-and-down, it’s impossible to predict what’s going to happen from game to game.”

Giannis Antetokounmpo powered his way to 36 points for the fifth-seeded Bucks, who played without star guard Damian Lillard, out with deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. The Bucks expect Lillard back either for Tuesday’s Game 2 rematch in Indianapolis or Game 3 on Friday in Milwaukee.

“Giannis got to the basket too much,” Carlisle said. “We were trying to build walls, and he was still getting there. Not a surprise, but we gotta look at that.”

The opener was never in doubt after an early 12-2 burst gave the Pacers a 15-8 lead. Nembhard had six points and Siakam and Aaron Nesmith a 3-pointer apiece in the run.

The Bucks, who won their last eight games of the regular season, hung within 53-41 after Antetokounmpo converted a three-point play with 3:45 left in the half. But the Pacers’ Bennedict Mathurin buried a 3-pointer to trigger a 14-2, half-closing run that broke the game open at 67-43 entering the break.

Siakam shot 10-for-15 and Nembhard 8-for-13 for the game for the Pacers, who earned the home-court advantage in the series by virtue of winning 50 games in the regular season, two more than the Bucks.

Haliburton added 10 points and seven rebounds, while Mathurin totaled 13 points and T.J. McConnell 11. Indiana’s largest lead was 28 points.

“(Haliburton is) an interesting kid because he’s more than just a scorer,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “Teams try to take things away from him, and when they do, he’s smart enough to make plays for his teammates. I thought he was very happy doing that. He’s a point guard. I thought he had a helluva game even though he didn’t score (much) because he got everybody involved.

The Pacers outshot the Bucks 51.9 percent to 41.7 percent.

Antetokounmpo’s 36 points were his 11th-most in a playoff game. He also found time for 12 rebounds, giving him his 53rd career postseason double-double.

No other Bucks starter scored in double figures. AJ Green chipped in with 15 points off the bench, Gary Trent Jr. 14 and Kevin Porter Jr. 12. Porter also accumulated five assists.

“There’s some really good things to take from this game,” Rivers said. “There’s some things that we need to make adjustments to. And there are things we know we can’t do.”

Nuggets rally late in Game 1, upend Clippers in OT

Aaron Gordon had six of his 25 points in overtime, Russell Westbrook came up with a big defensive play in the final seconds and the host Denver Nuggets rallied to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 112-110 in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Saturday.

“Russ is Russ,” said interim Nuggets head coach David Adelman. “Defensively, he was absolutely incredible.”

Nikola Jokic finished with 29 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds, Jamal Murray scored 21 points, Westbrook finished with 15 and Christian Braun had 11 for the Nuggets, who host Game 2 Monday night.

The Nuggets took a three-point lead with 2:24 left in overtime, but James Harden cut it to 105-104 on a floater in the lane. Jokic fed Braun for a 3-pointer with 59 seconds left, but Harden answered from deep with 27 seconds left.

Gordon made two free throws with 10.9 seconds left and Westbrook deflected the Clippers’ inbounds pass off of Harden. Jokic made two free throws with 6.5 seconds left to seal it.

“Honestly, you gotta find ways to win ugly,” Gordon said. “And I think that’s what we did.”

Harden led Los Angeles with 32 points and had 11 assists, Ivica Zubac finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds, Kawhi Leonard scored 22, Norman Powell contributed 12 and Kris Dunn finished with 11.

“We’re not happy because we went to overtime like that,” said Clippers coach Tyronn Lue. “They’re a good team and we’re a good team as well. We just gotta do what we’re supposed to do. Take care of the basketball, keep them off the glass and we’ll be fine. If you turn (it) over 20 times against the team that is No. 1 in offensive transition, then you’re gonna lose the game.”

After Denver trailed for most of the game, Murray’s 3-pointer with 7:31 left in the fourth tied it at 81-all, but Los Angeles surged to an 87-81 lead.

Murray and Gordon hit 3-pointers to cut it to 92-91 with 4:19 left, then Westbrook’s putback gave Denver its first lead since the first quarter.

The Clippers went back in front 94-93 and had a chance to extend the lead, but Leonard turned it over with 33 seconds left.

Westbrook hit a corner 3-pointer with 24 seconds left to make it 98-96, Harden tied it with a floater with 18 seconds left and the Nuggets couldn’t get a shot off before the end of the quarter.

The Clippers led by as much as 15 in the second quarter, but Denver closed the gap in the final 5:11 to trail 53-49 at halftime. The Nuggets closed within 75-72 heading into the fourth.