Al-Farouq Aminu of the Dallas Mavericks dribbles the ball against Corey Brewer of the Houston Rockets during Game Four of the Western Conference quarter-finals of the 2015 NBA Playoffs at American Airlines Center on Sunday in Dallas, Texas.

 

 

AFP/New York
Battered but unbowed, the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Boston Celtics 101-93 on Sunday to reach the second round of the NBA playoffs.
With 27 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists from LeBron James, the Cavs withstood the early exit of star forward Kevin Love with a dislocated shoulder to complete a 4-0 sweep of the Celtics in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series.
Love was hurt in the first quarter battling Celtics big man Kelly Olynyk, who yanked Love’s left arm as they chased a loose ball.
Love grabbed his left shoulder as he ran down the court, past his team’s bench toward the locker room. He said later he had “no doubt” Olynyk’s move was intentional and James agreed.
“I saw the replay and it didn’t look like a basketball play,” James said. “I’ve seen a lot of tie-ups in my day and that was a little different.”
The incident touched off a string of increasingly physical plays that threatened to overwhelm a game that the Cavs had well in hand.
Cleveland’s Kendrick Perkins was whistled for a foul and also picked up a technical foul in the second quarter after shoving Boston’s Jae Crowder to the court while setting a pick.
Crowder, who had been guarding James near the sideline, also received a technical foul after he and Perkins jawed at each other.
Cleveland’s J.R. Smith was ejected in the third quarter for hitting Crowder across the face as he defended the Celtics forward under the basket.
After a small push from Crowder in his back, Smith connected with his right hand as he wheeled around toward the ball.
Crowder left the game with what the Celtics said was a sprained left knee suffered when he fell on the play.
Kyrie Irving added 24 points and 11 rebounds for Cleveland and Iman Shumpert contributed 15 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

Washington march on
It was the first playoff series sweep for Cleveland since 2009, when they needed the minimum to get past Detroit and Atlanta back in James’s first stint with his home-state club.
They will face either Chicago or Milwaukee in the second round. The third-seeded Bulls missed a chance to sweep the Bucks on Saturday, but will try to finish them off when they take a 3-1 series lead into game five in Chicago on Monday.
The Celtics, who scraped into the playoffs with a late-season run in what was billed as a rebuilding year, were swept for the first time in 11 seasons.
Elsewhere in the East on Sunday, the Washington Wizards marched into the second round with a 125-94 romp past Toronto.
Marcin Gortat had 21 points and 11 rebounds and John Wall added 14 points and 10 assists for the Wizards, whose victory was never in doubt.
It marked the first time the club have swept an opponent in a seven-game playoff series.
After winning just two first-round sets in 34 prior seasons, Washington have now reached the second round two seasons in a row.
“To get to four is the hardest game and I’m really proud of our group,” said Wizards coach Randy Whittman, whose team raced to a big lead and led by as many as 37 in the second half.
“They were locked in... That was a workman-like four wins for us.”
The Wizards next face either top-seeded Atlanta or eighth-seeded Brooklyn. The Hawks lead that series 2-1.

Mavericks down Rockets to stay alive in playoffs
The Dallas Mavericks stayed alive in the NBA playoffs on Sunday with a 121-109 victory over the Houston Rockets.
Down 3-0 in their best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series, the Mavs opted to give J.J. Barea and Al-Farouq Aminu their first starts of the post-season and both produced double-doubles.
Barea scored 17 points and handed out 13 assists, enlivening a starting lineup that has been without injured Chandler Parsons and Rajon Rondo.
Aminu added 16 points—including five straight in the fourth quarter that helped thwart a Houston rally—and pulled down 12 rebounds.
Monta Ellis scored 31 points for the Mavs, who will try again to avoid elimination when they visit Houston for game five today.
They still face a tough task. No team has rallied from an 0-3 deficit to win a best-of-seven NBA playoff series.
As in game three, the Mavericks dominated the second quarter and led at halftime.
But this time, they kept the pressure on in the third, Ellis scoring 10 points in a 20-4 run to open the second half.
Houston whittled away at a 24-point deficit, with Josh Smith scoring eight unanswered points to help the Rockets pull within 109-99.
James Harden led the Rockets with 24 points, but Houston couldn’t get over the hump.
Elsewhere in the West, the Los Angeles Clippers bounced back from the worst post-season game in club history, defeating reigning NBA champions San Antonio 114-105 to knot their best-of-seven first-round series at two games apiece.
Chris Paul produced 34 points and seven assists and the Clippers connected on better than 53% of their shots from the floor.
It was a massive turnaround from their 34.1%, 73-point shooting performance in game three, both franchise lows for the post-season.
Los Angeles snapped a two-game losing streak in the series and will try to edge ahead when they host game five on Tuesday.
“There is no momentum in this series, as we’ve learned,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “It’s just two good teams fighting.”
Paul, who had just seven points in Friday’s 100-73 loss, connected on 11-of-19 from the field and scored 22 points in the second half.
Blake Griffin contributed 20 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists, J.J. Redick added 17 points and Austin Rivers and Jamal Crawford combined to score 31 off the bench for Los Angeles.
Kawhi Leonard again led the Spurs on offense, scoring 26 points after posting a career playoff high on Friday of 32.
“I think in general we lacked a lot of discipline,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “The only way to stay in those games is to play defense and not make mistakes and we made too many.”