Rockets 115, Thunder 111

Russell Westbrook put up gaudy numbers on Wednesday night.

Houston got a more modest performance from James Harden, but a collective scoring effort helped them rally for a win over Oklahoma City to take a 2-0 lead in the first-round Western Conference playoff series.

"It wasn't pretty," Harden said. "We didn't make a lot of shots. We gave them the early lead and we had to fight our way back and we did. We didn't give up. We continued to fight and grind and figure out a way to win."

Harden scored 35 points and the Rockets overcame 51 points from Westbrook in the highest-scoring triple-double in playoff history.

Westbrook set a franchise playoff scoring record and added 13 assists and 10 rebounds. It was the sixth career playoff triple-double for Westbrook, who had an NBA-record 42 in the regular season.

But he shot just 4 for 18 in the fourth quarter and the Rockets clawed back from a double-digit deficit.

He was not in the mood to talk about his statistics after the game.

"I don't give a (expletive) about the line," he said before glaring at reporters. "We lost."

Thunder coach Billy Donovan thought Westbrook might have gotten tired late after playing the entire fourth quarter, but Westbrook brushed off that notion.

"Nah, I was all right," he said.

Andre Roberson was the Thunder's second-leading scorer with 12 points.

Game 3 is Friday night in Oklahoma City.

The game was tied before Houston scored 10 straight points with 3-pointers from Harden, Patrick Beverley and Eric Gordon to make it 114-104 with 1:22 remaining.

"Down the stretch you've just got to be ready," Gordon said. "James draws a lot of attention. So I was ready for that shot. It was great timing to knock down a shot like that."

Westbrook had four straight points to start a 7-1 run after that, but the Thunder wouldn't get any closer.

This was a much different game than the series opener, when Houston routed the Thunder 118-87. On Wednesday night, Houston trailed by as many as 15 and didn't take a lead until the fourth quarter.

The Rockets benefited from a balanced scoring attack, with Lou Williams adding 21, Gordon scoring 22 off the bench and Game 1 star Beverley chipping in 15.

Houston used a big run early in the fourth quarter to go on top for the first time in the game with about eight minutes remaining. Harden's 3 about three minutes later made it 104-100.

Roberson added a tip-in layup for the Thunder before two free throws by Westbrook tied it at 104-all with about 3 minutes left.

The Thunder led by seven with about nine minutes left in the third quarter before Westbrook had four quick points to extend the lead to 79-68. Houston scored the next six points, but Oklahoma City answered with seven points in a row after that, with five from Westbrook, to extend the lead to 86-74 with about 3 minutes left in the quarter.

The Thunder led by as many as 15 points in the first half, but Houston had cut the lead to 68-62 at halftime.

Westbrook was just two rebounds shy of a triple-double by halftime with 22 points and 10 assists.

Wizards 109, Hawks 101

Through the first three quarters of Game 2 of Washington’s opening playoff series, Bradley Beal made only 6 of 18 shots. And that came after shooting just 9 for 21 in Game 1.

Did all of those misses bother him? Not one bit. Instead, he relied on a silly play on words that he says his agent taught him.

"It's something I always tell myself: I don't know what a 'miss' is. A 'miss' is a 'lady,'" Beal explained with a smile. "Everybody's confident in me. Coach is more than confident in me. So I just rise up and shoot it."

In a rough-and-tumble, foul-filled game, Beal and backcourt mate John Wall took over in the fourth quarter, combining to score 20 of Washington's last 21 points in a victory over Atlanta that gave the Wizards a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference series.

Beal finished with 31 points, 16 on 6-of-9 shooting in the final period.

"He's a franchise guy, with me, also on this team. We need him to be the scorer for us," Wall said. "We don't care if he shoots the ball 30 times."

Wall earned chants of "M-V-P!" while contributing 32 points and nine assists, including a dish to Beal for his key 3-pointer with 38 seconds remaining that sealed the win for the hosts. As soon as Beal let the ball fly, Wall raised both arms in celebration.

"When he shoots it," Wall said of that shot, "it's game over."

Washington, which trailed 78-74 entering the final period, won despite a total of only seven points from starting forwards Markieff Morris and Otto Porter Jr., who were both in foul trouble early.

"It was a tricky game to coach," said Washington's Scott Brooks, who avoided postgame criticism of the officiating, joking that he already knew he would be getting a text message from his daughter about a $2,000 fine he drew for a technical foul.

Game 3 is Saturday at Atlanta.

Paul Millsap led the Hawks with 27 points and 10 rebounds, and Dennis Schroder scored 23 points. But Dwight Howard had only seven rebounds, half his Game 1 total, and six points. Afterward, Howard responded to three consecutive questions from reporters with "I don't know," then replied "No" to one, before going back to "I don't know."

Howard finished with a hair under 20 minutes and only took five shots.

"Just went with some of our smaller groups and he didn't get back in," Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. "Just a little bit of a gut feel."

After Washington won the series opener over the weekend, Millsap bemoaned aloud about how things went, saying: "The difference in the game is we were playing basketball and they were playing MMA."

That became a talking point during the off days, and perhaps affected the way Game 2 was called. It was hardly akin to a mixed martial arts bout, but the officials sure seemed determined to use their whistles upon seeing anything resembling a foul.

There were 29 personal fouls in the opening 24 minutes, 55 for the game. In the third quarter, many voices in the sellout crowd of 20,356 joined in full-throated chants of derision directed at the officials.

Warriors 110, Trail Blazers 81

JaVale McGee has made a name for himself catching lob passes and reliably slamming them home to the pure delight of his teammates, and oh did those matter for short-handed Golden State as it moved one win closer to another NBA championship.

The typically spot-on Splash Brothers weren't hitting consistently. Kevin Durant wasn't on the court at all, nor Shaun Livingston.

McGee shined on a night none of the usual stars found their steady shooting strokes and sparked Golden State off the bench with 15 points, and the Warriors beat Portland in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series Wednesday night as Durant sat out injured.

"That's my whole thing, I just try to be efficient out there," McGee said.

The backup big man made all seven of his field-goal attempts and delivered several more of his signature alley-oop dunks as Durant watched with a strained left calf he hurt in the playoff opener Sunday.

"Sometimes we get caught up in looking for him too much when he's not open because we feel he can do something spectacular above the rim," Stephen Curry said.

Draymond Green put together another fantastic all-around game, getting 12 rebounds, 10 assists, six points and three more blocked shots after swatting five in Sunday's win.

Curry went 6 for 18 for 19 points and also had six assists and six rebounds. Klay Thompson was 6 of 17 with 16 points and CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard were hardly were the dynamic scoring duo for Portland they'd been combining for 75 points only three days earlier.

Again, Golden State did it on defense — holding the Blazers to 12 points in the third.

"Our offense got scattered, we were rushing everything. We were just not poised offensively and that put our defense in a bad position," coach Steve Kerr said. "I thought in the third quarter we settled our offense down which helped our defense."

And now the Warriors own a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series as it shifts to Portland for Saturday's Game 3, just as Kerr's group did going ahead on the Blazers in last year's Western Conference semifinal won in five games.

"We've got to have this one," Lillard said.

Maurice Harkless scored all of his 15 points in the first half and the Blazers gave up seven straight points to start the third as the Warriors were off and running. Portland played again without center Jusuf Nurkic, and missed him. The 7-footer still isn't 100 percent from a nondisplaced fracture in his right leg that sidelined him for the final seven regular-season games.

McCollum, who shot 16 for 28 to score 41 in the 121-109 Game 1 loss, scored 11 points on 4-for-17 shooting. Lillard was 5 for 17 and held to 12 points.

"Coming in the first two games we just wanted to take one," Lillard said. "We didn't do that."

Portland shot 7 for 34 on 3s and 30 for 90 overall.

Coach Terry Stotts called on his team to be more balanced to have a chance against top-seeded Golden State, which finished with the NBA's best record for a third straight season.

Instead, the Warriors once more showed their remarkable balance despite Livingston being sidelined after he also got hurt in Sunday's win.

Ian Clark scored 13 points, Andre Iguodala contributed 10 rebounds, six assists and six points, and Zaza Pachulia scored 10 points. McGee did his thing with three alley-oops in the first and two on consecutive possessions late in the period.