Wizards 117, Raptors 106

Washington is winning big at both talking and playing.

John Wall had 26 points and 17 assists, Bradley Beal scored 28 points and the Wizards beat Toronto on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.

Marcin Gortat scored 16 points, Otto Porter had 15 and Paul Pierce added 10 for the Wizards, who host Game 3 on Friday night.

In a series that started with talk about Pierce's criticism of Toronto's talent, Beal fired another verbal salvo in a television interview at the end of the second quarter.

"They think that we're some punks, they think they can push us around," Beal said of the Raptors. "But we're not rolling."

They aren't rolling over, but the Wizards may just be rolling into the second round.

Still, while they are comfortable talking trash, none of the Wizards want to get too comfortable with their series lead.

"We've got to play like we're down 0-2," Beal said of Game 3. "Nothing changes. We can't stop being aggressive."

Wizards coach Randy Wittman echoed Beal's comments.

"It's hard winning four games in a series," Wittman said. "And as you continue to move on, the harder it gets. Game 3 on Friday is going to be harder to play in than these first two games. It just gets that way as the series moves on."

Jonas Valanciunas had 15 points and 10 rebounds while Sixth Man Award winner Lou Williams and DeMar DeRozan each scored 20 points for the Raptors, who have lost four straight playoff games over the past two seasons.

"It's far from over," DeRozan said. "Our confidence is still high. All we've got to do is take it game by game."

Patrick Patterson had 15 points and Amir Johnson added 10 for Toronto, which has won just one playoff series in six previous postseason appearances.

"Now it's all about pride," Johnson said. "We have to take it to Washington and get one and get some momentum."

All-Star guard Kyle Lowry, who fouled out of Game 1 with seven points after missing eight of 10 shots, struggled again. Lowry limped to the locker room midway through the fourth quarter with a bruised left shin and did not return. He finished with six points on 3-of-10 shooting. The Raptors said Lowry will be re-evaluated Wednesday.

The Wizards connected on 27 of 39 field goal attempts in the second and third quarters.

Washington, which outrebounded Toronto 61-48 in Game 1, was dominant on the glass again. The Wizards finished with 45 rebounds while the Raptors had 28. Toronto didn't get a single offensive rebound in the first half.

Toronto took a 12-2 lead and held a 31-26 edge after one quarter. DeRozan scored nine points in the first and Valanciunas had eight.

"They came out and took it to us in the first 3 or 4 minutes," Wittman said. "Once I took that early timeout, we settled down."

Just as they did in Saturday's Game 1 win, the Wizards used a second-quarter surge to take the lead. Beal scored 16 points in the second, including a 3 that started a 13-0 run to put the Wizards up 60-49 at halftime.

"(Beal) got going because we lost him on transition defense," Casey said.

The Raptors struggled after Lowry picked up his second and third fouls in an 11-second span and spent the final 9:18 of the half on the bench.

"That's when we got in trouble," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.

The Raptors opened the third quarter with a 12-3 spurt, cutting the deficit to 63-61, but Washington responded with 10 straight points to restore its double-digit lead. Wall scored 10 points in the third as the Wizards took a 97-75 lead into the fourth, leading to boos from the Air Canada Centre crowd.

Rockets 111, Mavericks 99

Friends since preschool, but teammates for the first time since they were teenagers, Dwight Howard and Josh Smith have been itching for this opportunity.

On Tuesday night the Rockets teammates proved an unstoppable combination in a key run that helped Houston to a victory over Dallas and a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference playoff series.

The Mavericks scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to take a three-point lead. But with James Harden on the bench, Houston scored the next 11 points, powered by three alley-oop passes from Smith to Howard, who had 28 points, to take a 92-84 lead with about 8 minutes left.

"Man, like they were little boys again," Harden, who finished with 24 points, said referring to their time playing AAU ball together.

Cast aside by Detroit, Smith is ecstatic to have found success in Houston. Smith, who connected with Howard on six alley-oop passes, finished with 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.

"We just saw something, a little wrinkle in their defense and we just tried to take advantage of it," Smith said.

Howard, who missed more than two months late this season with swelling in his right knee, played just 17 minutes in Game 1 because of foul trouble. On Tuesday night he played more than 33 minutes, showing that he's back to form after an injury-plagued regular season. He had 12 rebounds and two blocks.

"I don't care about how many points I get, my job is to make sure I dominate the paint," Howard said.

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle lamented the number of alley-oops Houston had.

"Those are a problem," Carlisle said. "We've going to have to find a way to better combat that."

Monta Ellis had 24 points for Dallas, but big men Dirk Nowitzki and Tyson Chandler combined for just 21 points.

Game 3 is in Dallas on Friday night.

A fourth alley-oop connection came soon after the big run and Smith dished it to Corey Brewer for two straight dunks seconds later to make it 98-88.

Smith had another highlight with about 2 minutes left when he grabbed a bounce pass from Harden and sailed over Chandler for a one-handed dunk that made it 109-96.

Houston coach Kevin McHale raved about Smith's performance.

"He and Dwight had some beautiful hook ups and lob passes, and he just did a wonderful job of getting into spots and making the next play and breaking down the defense," McHale said.

The Mavericks played without Chandler Parsons, who missed the game with a right knee injury. Parsons, who averaged 15.7 points in the regular season, played in Game 1 after sitting out the last six before the postseason with the same problem.

Carlisle said they are "very concerned" about Parsons and that he will be re-evaluated on Wednesday.

Rajon Rondo of Dallas got into foul trouble early, and didn't play after picking up his fourth with more than 11 minutes left in the third quarter. He finished with four points.

Atlanta's Budenholzer voted NBA coach of the year

Mike Budenholzer was right where he didn't want to be: the center of attention.

There was no avoiding it. Not after leading the Atlanta Hawks to the top of the Eastern Conference.

Budenholzer was honored as the NBA coach of the year on Tuesday, an award that moved him to tears as he spoke about the people who meant so much to his career.

His players. His father. Danny Ferry. And, of course, Gregg Popovich.

"Winning this award evokes a lot of emotions," Budenholzer said, choking up several times.

He is clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight, rarely opening up about anything more than the next game. So it didn't sound like polite modesty when he said he would have preferred for Golden State's Steve Kerr to win the award.

Kerr, whose team finished an NBA-best 67-15 in his first season with the Warriors, was second in the balloting, the only other candidate to receive serious consideration.

"I don't want to sound like I'm not appreciative of it," Budenholzer said after a ceremony at Philips Arena. "But in a perfect world, I'd be somewhere else."

A longtime assistant under Popovich at San Antonio, Budenholzer won the Red Auerbach Trophy for guiding the Hawks to a 60-22 mark during the regular season, the best in franchise history.

"He's a wonderful person, a heck of a coach," Popovich said in Los Angeles, where the Spurs were playing the Clippers in the Western Conference playoffs. "It's great that people noticed and understood what a good job he did. I'm sure he doesn't even know which way to turn, but he's a happy camper, for sure."

The Hawks had a 19-game winning streak, became the first NBA team to go 17-0 during a calendar month, and cruised to their first division title since 1994, which also was the last time they held a No. 1 seed.

"He deserves it," said Jeff Teague, the Hawks' All-Star point guard. "He's made me a better player. He's made our team better."

Budenholzer received 67 first-place votes and 513 points overall in balloting by sports writers and broadcasters. Kerr received 56 first-place votes and 471 points. Milwaukee's Jason Kidd was a distant third.

"I'm actually really glad Mike won," Kerr said. "I just got into this gig. It would've felt really weird to win that award when this team has had so much success and was already really good last year before I got here."

Indeed, while the Warriors put together one of the great seasons in NBA history, they did go 51-31 under former coach Mark Jackson. Atlanta went 38-44 during Budenholzer's injury-filled debut season with the Hawks, a result that was not unexpected given the team's almost total makeover the past couple of years.

"Mike has transformed that team," said Kerr, whose team is up 2-0 in its playoff series against New Orleans.

The Hawks' turnaround is even more impressive given their troubled offseason. Emails emerged showing owner Bruce Levenson made racially charged comments about the fan base, prompting him to put the team up for sale.

Not long after, it was revealed that Ferry — the team's general manager, architect of the roster overhaul, and the one who hired Budenholzer — made racially insensitive comments during a conference call to discuss the potential signing of free agent Luol Deng. Ferry was forced to take an indefinite leave that lasted all season.

The 45-year-old Budenholzer, with help from assistant GM Wes Wilcox, took control of player personnel matters as well as his coaching duties. He molded a tight-knit unit that has been willing to sacrifice individual stats for the good of the team.

"It's been a tough year," said Budenholzer, the first coach of the year from Atlanta since Lenny Wilkens in 1994. "But hopefully everybody has handled it to the best of all of our abilities."