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The Boston Celtics suffered a shock defeat against the New York Knicks while the Oklahoma City Thunder were beaten by the Denver Nuggets in the first games of their Conference play-off semi-finals.<\/b><\/p>\n
The Celtics, the reigning champions, were on the wrong end of an 108-105 overtime defeat at home in the opening match of their Eastern Conference best-of-seven series.<\/p>\n
Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby each scored 29 points for the Knicks, who fought back from being 20 points behind during the third quarter.<\/p>\n
“This team has fought all year, and been a pretty good road team,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau.<\/p>\n
“It’s one game. There’s a lot of emotional highs and lows in the play-offs, but no matter what happens you have to keep moving forward.”<\/p>\n
Brunson missed a lay-up with three seconds left in regulation while Jayson Tatum, who was the joint-top scorer for the Celtics with 23 points, missed a long-range effort at the buzzer with the score at 100-100 before the Knicks sealed the win in overtime.<\/p>\n
“We left some of their good shooters open,” said Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla. “There’s detail stuff that we have to be better at.”<\/p>\n
Game two in the series will be played at 19:00 local time (00:00 Thursday BST) in Boston on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Thunder, who finished top of the Western Conference, were beaten 121-119 by a visiting Nuggets side inspired by Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon.<\/p>\n
Jokic registered 42 points, 22 rebounds and six assists for the Nuggets, while Gordon – after Chet Holmgren missed two free throws for Thunder – went up the other end and scored a game-winning three-pointer in the closing seconds.<\/p>\n
Gordon finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Denver were 13 points behind at one stage of the fourth quarter but ended it with a 19-6 run to go 1-0 up in the series.<\/p>\n
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander top scored for Thunder as he tallied 33 points,10 rebounds and eight assists.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t think our execution was as clean as it can be,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault. “But we’ll learn from it. It’s a series.”<\/p>\n
Game two of the series will take place at 21:30 local time (03:30 Thursday BST) in Oklahoma on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n