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Boston Celtics take an early lead In game one of the Eastern conference semifinals

By Arnie Leshin 
The Boston Celtics handily won their Eastern Conference playoff semifinals opener over the 2nd-seeded, defending champion Toronto Raptors, 112-91.
In the Western Conference quarterfinals, the 2nd-seeded Los Angeles Clippers advanced to their semis via a 111-97 elimination of the Dallas Mavericks in the National Basketball Association at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Fourth-seeded Boston had an unexpected easy time against Toronto, soaring to a 39-23 lead after one quarter and holding a 59-42 advantage at halftime. The Celtics, who swept the rival Philadelphia 76ers in the opening round in four games, never slowed down as they maintained their lead at 84-63 after three quarters.
The Raptors, who swept the Brooklyn Nets in four games to advance, never led and spent time watching Boston toss in outside shots, some from outside the 3-point line, and just the Celts just remained in command throughout. Jason Tatum, Boston’s best players in these players, led the way with the game-high 21 points and brought down nine rebounds.
His teammate, Daniel Theis, added the game-high 15 rebounds to go with 13 points, and Kemba Walker handed out 10 assists and scored 18 points.
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For Toronto, it was Kyle Lowry with the team-best 17 points, and he also brought down eight boards to go, while the assists leader was Fred VanVleef with eight and he also tallied 11 points. The teams play again Tuesday.
As for the Clipppers, they trailed 34-29 after one quarter against the pesky Dallas Mavericiks, but gained the lead and held it with a 57-51 advantage at the intermission. Heading into the fourth quarter, the LA lead was 85-74 as Kawhi Leonard t-high 33 points in the second half. He also led his team in rebounds with 14 and in assists with seven.
The Mavs, who won game one of this series, couldn’t stay with Los Angeles after that. Some of the games were close until the Clippers went on a run. Luka Doncic was as usual the main man for Dallas, with the game-high 38 points while bringing down nine rebounds and handing out the same number of assists.
In the finale, the Utah Jazz was trying to oust the Denver Nuggets as it held a 3-2 lead in the series. The 3rd-seeded Nuggets won game one and game five, and the 5th-seeded Jazz took the in between games. And this one went to Denver, 119-107, as it forced the only seventh game of these playoffs by pulling away in the final quarter behind a game-high 50 points from Jamal Murray, his second-straight 50.
It was 61-56 halftime lead for the Nuggets after trailing 36-30 after one quarter, Denver stayed in front 88-78 after three quarters to offset the team-high 44 points from Utah’s Donovan Mitchell. Utah had won three in a row after losing game one, but back came Denver to knot the score.
Murray also took down five rebounds and handed out six assists. Teammate Nikola Jokic added 22 points and a game-high nine assists. Then there was Michael Porter, Jr., bringing down a dozen rebounds. Mitchell added six boards and five assists to his total, Mike Conley had the team-high six rebounds and scored 22 points and Rudy Gobert scrubbed the boards for 11 rebounds.
Monday has the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks meeting in the Eastern Conference semifinals game one, and in the Western Conference the Houston Rockets are up 3-2 over the Oklahoma Thunder in the quarterfinal series.

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