Rockets 118-108 Mavericks
The Rockets win 118-108. Harden scores 24 points, Brewer scores 15 points and Howard 11 points, five rebounds and five blocks. Nowitzki scores 24 points, Chandler scores a double-double (11 points and 18 rebounds) for the Mavericks. Houston leads First Round West Series 1-0. Harden:
That’s means everybody’s touching the basketball, everybody’s getting involved and they can’t only just stop one person. They put two on the ball, me I make the pocket pass, I made the easy play and had confidence in my teammates to make the next one.
Nowitzki on Maverick’s loss:
You’ve got to give the other guys credit. Obviously, we were paying a lot of attention to James, but they made some plays off the pick-and-rolls. It’s just too easy.
Brewer:
It’s all about Game 1. You have to get Game 1, especially when you have homecourt advantage. For us, it was big to get a win. We got a win, and now we’ve got to get Game 2.
Warriors 106-99 Pelicans Game 1
The Warriors win 106-99. Curry scores 34 points, Thompson scores 21 points, Green scores a double-double (15 points, 12 rebounds). For the Pelicans, Davis scores 35 points, Pondexter scores 20 points and Gordon 16 points. Warriors leads West First Round Series 1-0. Curry:
I was locked in and focused the whole night. In those situations, you want to get the crowd back into it. There’s a weird kind of tension, especially in the second half when they made a couple runs. But in the playoffs, you have to expect anything. And whenever you’re on the floor, just try to make an impact.
Coach Kerr:
It’s good for us to have to deal with the feeling in the building, especially as a favorite, when a team starts to come back. You have to feel that. That’s all part of it.
Davis:
I think the whole team was nervous. This is our first time as a unit in the playoffs, and our pace was good. We were moving fast, but our minds were moving fast as well.
Twins 8 – 5 Royals
The Twins defeat the Royals 8-5. Mauer has three RBI’s and Vargas and Suzuki each add two-run home runs. Milone:
The guys had my back, especially scoring right after they scored in the first inning. You get that breath of fresh air, and go back out there and try to battle and keep your team in the game.
Hunter on Vargas’ home run
That was a bullet. I was in awe. I didn’t see David Ortiz hit nothing like that. That was impressive. I’m glad to see him start to come around and swing the bat well and be that threat we know he can be.
Rockets 117-91 Jazz
The Rockets win 117-91. Harden scores a triple-double (16 points, 11 rebounds and ten assists), Howard scores 14 points and Smith scores 13 points. Cotton scores 14 points for the Jazz. Howard on playoffs game:
We want to win a championship and that’s the goal. You can have a great regular season but the most important thing is what you do in the playoffs.
Coach McHale:
We came out and had good juice. We had a great second quarter and really got out running and got some stops.
Coach Snyder:
They were just better than us. They just outplayed us and there’s no shame in that for our group.
Mavericks 114-98 TrailBlazers
The Mavericks win 114-98. Chandler scores a double-double (22 points and 15 rebounds). Lillard scores 17 points and Aldridge scores 17 points for the Blazers. Coach Carlisle on the Houston-Mavericks playoff game:
That’s a lot of external noise. We’ve got to make sure that we ignore what’s not important. What’s important is our group, how tied together we are and how strong our will is.
Chandler on Rockets playoff game:
We have a tough task ahead of us.
Aldridge:
You always want to win your last game or your last few games, but we’ve had guys out. I think guys just have to be ready to go now.
Raptors 92-87 Hornets
The Raptors win 92-87. Lowry scores 26 points, Valanciunas scores 18 points and DeRozan scores 16 points. Daniels scores 24 points, Walker scores 17 points and Henderson scores 15 points for the Hornets. DeRozan on Pierce talks of Raptor’s playoff game:
Paul Pierce has always got to say something. He said something last year. He’s always got to say something. Just let him talk. I could care less what he says.
Coach Casey on playoff Game 1 versus Wizards:
The real season starts this weekend, what we’ve been building for.
Coach Clifford on the Raptors-Wizards series:
They’re very well coached, they have a number of ways to score and (Casey) is going to know how to prepare them defensively.
Lowry:
It feel great. Good game for me to go into the playoffs off.
Bulls 91-85 Hawks
The Bulls win 91-85. Brooks scores 23 points, Butler scores 21 points and Gasol scores a double-double (18 points and 13 rebounds). Schroder scores 21 points and Horford scores 14 points for the Hawks. Gasol:
We have to want it more than anybody else. The resiliency that we have, we’ve got to turn it into a determination and understand that every game in the playoffs is critical.
Millsap on the Hawk’s performance:
We feel like we can really do something. It’s up to us going out there and proving it.
Coach Thibodeau:
When you have a lot of moving parts, it can get choppy. We have to hit the ground running. We’re here now. We’ll see.
Clippers 110-103 Nuggets
The Clippers win 110-103. Griffin scores 22 points, Jordan scores a double-double (20 points, 21 rebounds) and J.J. Reddick scores 20 points. Chandler scores 32 points and Faried scores a double-double (19points and 17 rebounds) for the Nuggets. Coach Rivers on playoff schedule:
There’s nobody that’s not good in the West. You’re going to have a tough series. The teams that embrace that are going to do well and the ones that don’t are going to be out early.
Reddick:
It was down to our team defense. We locked them up. We had to win this game.
Coach Hunt:
I think people are kind of overlooking them because the West is so good.
Jazz 109-92 Mavericks
The Jazz win 109-92. Cotton scores 21 points, Gobert scores a double-double (20 points, 17 rebounds, three blocks and three assists and a steal). For the Mavericks Barea scores 18 points, Villanueva scores 15 points and Stoudmire scores 14 points. Coach Synder on Jazz’s performance:
When you’ve got a group of guys that works as hard and is as committed as our group has been. It’s nice to see some of those guys get an opportunity to play. We did have a chance in these last two games to actually see those young men and give them a chance to play. When players play hard, it’s easy to play them.
Cotton:
Opportunities like this don’t come along too often. And I wanted to go out there and make the most of this opportunity.
Coach Carslisle:
In the end we gave up too many rebounds and we had too many turnovers. Those were all possession plays and that stuff all added up and it hurt us.
Pistons 116-77 Hornets
Pistons win 116-77. Drummond scores a double-double (15 points and 19 rebounds) and Monroe scores 17 points. Vonleh scores a double-double (16 points and 12 rebounds) for the Hornets. Monroe on the team’s performance:
It’s crossed my mind, but I try to stay in the moment. This was a good win for me and my teammates.
Prince on the team’s tribute to his career:
To see that tribute, it pays that respect of what I’ve been able to accomplish. I’m very appreciative for it.
Clifford on eliminates from playoff contention:
There’s disappointment in not making the playoffs. We’ve got to put more into this game. With the injuries, we’re a little bit out-manned – that doesn’t mean we can’t win.
Bucks 96-73 Nets
The Bucks win 96-73. Ilyasova scores 21 points, O.J. Mayo scores 17 points, Antetokounmpo scores 13 points. Lopez scores a double-double (12 points and ten rebounds), Jack scores 11 points for the Nets. Antetokounmpo:
Our goal was to go to the playoffs, from Day One. Everybody believed in it. I started believing in it and we made it.
Young:
We have to forget about this one. We can’t even think about the next two games, we have to focus on this next one against Chicago. It’s as simple as that.
Jack:
They do a good job of packing the paint. Showing our pick-and-roll didn’t really disrupt them in the lane.
Warriors 110-101 Timberwolves
The Warriors win 110-101. Curry scores 34 points, Thompson scores 23 points and Green has a double-double (13 points and 14 rebounds). Wiggins scores 17 points for the Timberwolves.
Coach Kerr:
It felt like we went through the motions a little bit. Maybe this is just two weeks of already knowing our position, I don’t know. We just weren’t sharp.
Bogut:
They only had seven guys active so we knew they were guys playing for their contracts and NBA lives. They came out and gave us good battle but we kind of need that. I think it’ll help us in the playoffs.
Coach Saunders:
We could easily have phoned it in. t’s encouraging to see the guys work hard. With our injury situation we basically played just seven guys.
Nets 117-80 Wizards
The Nets wins 117-80. Lopez scores 26 points and nine rebounds, Jack scores 14 points. For the Wizards, Beal scores 24 points and Gortat scores a double-double (21 points, 16 rebounds). Coach Hollins:
Well, if we don’t keep it going, we’ll be at home. If we keep it going we’ll be in the playoffs. We win out, we’re in. That’s the beauty of it. We’re not worried about anybody else.
Jack:
I think it’s easy when we’re not playing out the net, allowing teams to shoot a high percentage. It allows us to flow that much better on the offensive end.
Beal:
We’re trying to move up to get home court, but like I always say, it doesn’t matter if we have home court because it’s going to be tough regardless. It’s embarrasing because this is a playoff team that just flat-out beat us, and we can’t do that three games away from the playoffs.
Warriors 116-105 TrailBlazers
The Warriors win 116-105. Curry scores 45 points, ten assists and Thompson scores 26 points. Aldridge scores 27 points, six rebounds and Lillard scores 20 points and eight assists. Aldridge on Curry’s performance:
He played like he wants to be MVP.
Coach Kerr:
He never says anything about it. But you better believe he wants it.
Lillard:
We tried to mix up our coverages a little bit because he came out making shots from everywhere. It pretty much just didn’t matter. He made shots with a hand in his face, off balance, deep, everything. He just had it going.
Bulls 89-78 Heat
The Bulls win 89-78. Gasol scores a double-double (16 points and 15 rebounds), Aaron Brooks scores 14 points and Rose scores 12 points. For the Heat, Whiteside scores a double-double (19 points and 16 rebounds), Dragic scores 15 points and Beasley scores 13 points. Gasol:
Once we started getting into them, getting rebounds, containing them to one shot, things turned around.
Noah on Chicago’s first half:
It was embarrassing.
Coach Spoelstra:
We’re all frustrated. We’re all embarrassed when you’re in those situations and you can’t stop an avalanche like that.
Wade:
You just keep coming back until they tell you your season is over. This team has been through a lot. A loss, a bad 24 minutes, that’s not going to deter us from coming back and doing our job.
Pacers 102-86 Knicks
The Pacers win 102-86. Hill scores 20 points, Hibbert scores a double-double (11 points and 11 rebounds). Galloway scores 19 points for the Knicks. Hibbert:
I was just trying to be aggressive. Coach (Vogel) has been playing three centers so that means not as many minutes for myself so I’m just trying to go out there and make the best of the minutes that I do have.
Coach Vogel:
We need them all at this point in the year. We know we were behind the eight ball,it’s an uphill battle. We’re going to need some losses from other teams. We can’t control that; we’ve just got to control what we can control and that’s taking care of our own business and get another win.
Galloway on Pacers wins:
They want to win bad. They’re trying to get into the playoffs. We just had to be ready for it and tonight we let ourselves get behind the 8-ball and just couldn’t answer the bell.
Hawks 114-111 Nets
The Hawks win 114-111. Horford scores 24 points and Scott scores 20 points and eight rebounds. Lopez scores a double-double (26 points and ten rebounds) and Williams has 14 assists for the Nets. Coach Budenholzer:
Brooklyn made a heck of a comeback. For our guys to keep their poise and to keep their composure and stay together and execute in some crucial moments on both ends of the court, that’s what you need going down the stretch.
Horford:
No, not at all. Our focus (was) on this game, this team. We did a good job of that. We came out and we were ready to play.
Jack:
Tonight they came out, hit us in the mouth early, but we just stayed with it. We fought, we clawed and that’s just the resilience that we have if we want to make it to that goal that we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season.
Celtics 113-103 Pistons
The Celtics win 113-103. Thomas scores 34 points, a season high for the player, and Crowder scores 17 points. For the Pistons, Drummond scores 22 points and 14 rebounds, Jackson scores 21 points and 15 assists, and Greg Monroe scores 19 points and ten rebounds. The Celtics eliminate Detroit from playoff contention. Coach Van Gundy on Thomas’ performance:
A lot of this game came down to the fact that we just couldn’t contain Isaiah Thomas. We couldn’t keep him out of the paint, we couldn’t stay with him on pick-and-rolls and when we tried to trap him, he just went around our bigs.
Coach Stevens:
He was just great – he’s a really skilled player. He was playing with really skilled groups tonight and he was getting to the rim and getting his shots.
Crowder:
This was a big game for us, and we played within ourselves. We executed everything we needed to do, and they didn’t make many adjustments on the pick and roll. It was good.
Wizards 119-90 76ers
Wizards win 119-90. Beal scores 21 points, Sessions scores 19 points, and Gortat scores 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists. For the 76ers, Covington scores 27 points and Richardson scores 16. Coach Wittman:
I thought our guys were tremendous. We shot lights out. But we got some really good looks because of our ball movement.
Beal:
This shows how deep we are as a team. We definitely want our guys healthy come playoff time, and sharp as well. I think we’re doing a great job of that.
Coach Brown:
We started the game so poorly. We subbed our first group out quickly trying to find some life, but I thought the first half defensively was just poor.
Magic 105-103 Bulls
The Magic win 105-103. Oladipo scores 23 points, Vucecic scores 22 points. For the Bulls, Butler scores 19 points and Gasol scores 16. Rose:
I felt all right, think it was about right. It’ll get better the more I play, but I’m getting better every week. It’ll take some time, but I’ll get there.
On watching the game from the bench:
Very hard. At the same time, it’s all about patience. I’m going to have my turn. Right now while I’m not playing, I’m just trying to learning a little more and seeing how they’re playing. The only thing I can do is just sit back and watch and learn.
Oladipo:
There’s no playoff but we’re trying to treat every game like a playoff game. There’s teams that we’re playing that are playoff seeds, but we’re trying to get better too.