Celtics, Cavs stay perfect in NBA playoffs

Jaylen Brown has registered 36 points and 10 rebounds, Kristaps Porzingis returned to the game after getting a bloody gash to the forehead and finished with 20 points, and Boston beat Orlando 109-100 in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.

The Celtics took a 2-0 series lead while playing on Wednesday night without All-Star Jayson Tatum, who has a bone bruise in his right wrist and missed a playoff game for the first time in his career.

Boston led by 15 points in the second half, then held off a late push by the Magic. The Celtics hit 12 three-pointers and went 25 of 33 from the free-throw line. Derrick White and Brown had 17 of Boston’s 28 points in the final period and White finished with 17.

Paolo Banchero led Orlando, who host Game 3 on Friday night, with 32 points and nine rebounds.

Tatum had not missed a playoff game in his eight seasons with the Celtics. He injured his wrist in Game 1 after landing awkwardly following a flagrant foul by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

Tempers flared between Caldwell-Pope and Al Horford in Game 2 when their feet got tangled up and and sent both crashing to the floor during the second quarter.

Then, late in the third, Porzingis went to the locker room with a gash to his forehead but returned in time to shoot a pair of free throws after taking an elbow from Goga Bitadze.

In Cleveland, Donovan Mitchell scored 30 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter, and the Cavaliers held on for a 121-112 victory over Miami to also go up 2-0 in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

The top-seeded Cavs set an NBA playoff record with 11 threes in the second quarter and had 22 for the game. However, Cleveland had to hold off a second-half charge by the Heat.

Tyler Herro scored 33 points for Miami, who host Game 3 on Saturday.

The Cavaliers had a 19-point lead with under three minutes remaining in the third quarter before the Heat made their run to get within 105-103 lead with 3:11 left.

Mitchell, who also had six rebounds and six assists, then scored Cleveland’s next eight points, including a pair of three-pointers, during an 8-2 run to give them some breathing room.

Evan Mobley added 20 points and Darius Garland 19 for the Cavs.

In the later game, Jalen Green made eight 3-pointers and scored 38 points to lead the Houston Rockets to a 109-94 win over the Golden State Warriors in a testy matchup to even the first-round Western Conference series at one game apiece.

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 with a dominant Game 2.

His eight 3-pointers were two more than the No. 2-seeded Rockets made on six-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.

Stephen Curry had 20 points and nine assists for the Warriors and become the 11th player in NBA history to reach 4000 career playoff points with 4017.