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Hawks upset Pacers in playoff opener

INDIANAPOLIS — Road teams dominated on the opening day of the NBA playoffs, with the Atlanta Hawks pulling off the biggest upset with victory at Eastern Conference top seed the Indiana Pacers.

Atlanta Hawks’ Jeff Teague shooting against Indiana Pacers’ George Hill in Game 1 of an opening-round NBA basketball playoff series on Saturday in Indianapolis. Photo: AP

Atlanta Hawks’ Jeff Teague shooting against Indiana Pacers’ George Hill in Game 1 of an opening-round NBA basketball playoff series on Saturday in Indianapolis. Photo: AP

INDIANAPOLIS — Road teams dominated on the opening day of the NBA playoffs, with the Atlanta Hawks pulling off the biggest upset with victory at Eastern Conference top seed the Indiana Pacers.

The Pacers had been expected to be too strong for a Hawks team that had lost its previous eight playoff games, but Jeff Teague led Atlanta to an important 101-89 victory with a playoff career-high 28 points.

Indiana, which spent the whole season working to get home-court advantage in the playoffs, wasted no time in giving it right back with a dismal third quarter.

Atlanta opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run, breaking a 50-50 tie, then pulled away when Teague scored nine points in a 14-0 run that made it 74-58 with 4:08 left in the quarter. Indiana could not get closer than eight the rest of the way, despite 24 points and 10 rebounds from Paul George.

Elsewhere, the Golden State Warriors won away in a tight game against the Los Angeles Clippers, whose chances were hurt by having Blake Griffin and Chris Paul in foul trouble.

Golden State also produced a strong third quarter to prevail 109-105, with 22 points for Klay Thompson and two from David Lee.

Warriors trailed by 11 points early, but capitalised in the third as Griffin and Paul were benched due to accumulating foul numbers.

The Brooklyn Nets beat the Toronto Raptors 94-87, but the margin could have been far wider had the Nets not been so off-target with their three-point shooting, making only four of 24 attempts beyond the arc.

Brooklyn’s Deron Williams and Joe Johnson each scored 24, while Paul Pierce scored nine of his 15 points in the final quarter to guide the visitors to victory.

Kyle Lowry scored 22 points and Jonas Valanciunas had 17 points and 18 rebounds for Toronto, becoming the second Raptors player to have a double-double in his postseason debut after Tracy McGrady did it in 2000. Valanciunas also set a Raptors record for playoff rebounds, surpassing Keon Clark’s 16 in 2002.

The only home-court winner of the day was Oklahoma City, with Kevin Durant guiding the Thunder to a comfortable 100-86 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. AP

Tomorrow’s games:

Western Conference:

Game 2: Memphis at Oklahoma City (Oklahoma lead best-of-seven series 1-0)

Game 2: Golden State at LA Clippers (Clippers lead best-of-seven series 1-0)

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