Kevin Durant dunks against the Milwaukee Bucks during Brooklyn’s 115-107 win Saturday night in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series in New York. Adam Hunger/Associated Press
NEW YORK — Kevin Durant scored 29 points, Kyrie Irving had 25 and the two superstars carried the Brooklyn Nets after James Harden’s early injury in a 115-107 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Harden didn’t even make it through a minute before leaving with a right hamstring injury – an injury that forced him to miss two losses to the Bucks in May.
But the Nets beat Milwaukee without him, getting 19 points from Joe Harris and 18 points and 14 rebounds from Blake Griffin.
And they got a solid defensive effort despite giving up plenty of size, holding the Bucks 13 points below their NBA-leading average.
Durant grabbed 10 rebounds and Irving had eight assists, throwing some spectacular passes as the Nets moved the ball around quickly and had the Bucks a step or more behind all night.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 34 points and 11 rebounds, but the Bucks were just 6 for 30 from 3-point range and lost for the first time in the playoffs after storming past Miami in a first-round sweep.
NOTES
MAGIC: Orlando’s rebuilding project will not include Steve Clifford, with the team and their coach announcing that his three-year run there is over.
Clifford, a Maine native and former University of Maine at Farmington player, was 96-131 in those three seasons, though that record is a bit misleading given how many injuries the team dealt with this season. Orlando went to the playoffs in 2019 and 2020 under Clifford, its first postseason trips since a run of six straight ended in 2012.
But this season was trying in no shortage of ways. Injuries gutted the Magic, and then the team’s core — All-Star forward Nikola Vucevic, guard Evan Fournier and forward Aaron Gordon — were all moved at the trade deadline as Orlando went younger and stockpiled draft picks for the rebuild.
“It’s the toughest season I’ve ever been through,” Clifford said as the season ended.
The team said it was a mutual decision. Orlando was 21-51 this season, and Magic President Jeff Weltman indicated Saturday that Clifford might not have wanted to be part of a long rebuild around young players and draft picks.
TRAIL BLAZERS: No team in the NBA has a longer active streak of postseason appearances than the Portland Trail Blazers, who have gotten there in each of the last eight seasons.
That wasn’t enough to save Terry Stotts, and Portland will have a new coach next season.
The Trail Blazers and Stotts parted ways Friday, ending a nine-year run that saw the team good enough to get to the playoffs – but not good enough to get past the first round in four of the last five seasons.
Stotts was the NBA’s fourth longest-tenured coach in his current job behind only San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Dallas’ Rick Carlisle. He went 402-318 in his nine regular seasons in Portland, with the eight playoff berths, and led the team to the Western Conference finals in 2019 — where the Blazers were swept by Golden State.
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