NBA PLAYOFFS : SuperSonics Take Advantage of Warriors

Sean Kemp and Ricky Pierce each scored 28 points and the Seattle SuperSonics defeated the Golden State Warriors, 117-109, Thursday night at Oakland in the opener of their first-round playoff series.

The Warriors, playing with a home-court advantage for the first time since 1977, lost it in this best-of-five series when the SuperSonics exploited their size advantage, outrebounding Golden State, 52-34.

Derrick McKey scored 19 points and Gary Payton had 14 points and 12 assists for the SuperSonics. Kemp had 16 rebounds.

Billy Owens scored 25 points, Sarunas Marciulionis 23 and Tim Hardaway 22 for the Warriors. Chris Mullin finished with 16 points, nearly 10 less than his regular-season average.

Boston 124, Indiana 113--With Larry Bird and Dee Brown injured, the Celtics turned up their defense in the fourth quarter and defeated the Pacers in their playoff opener at Boston Garden.

“In the next game, hopefully we can come to play a little earlier than the last five minutes,” Celtic Coach Chris Ford said after Reggie Lewis scored 36 points and Kevin Gamble triggered a decisive 15-2 run with under five minutes remaining for a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

“They can put points on the board and we knew we were in for a long game,” Ford said. “Fortunately, our defense dug in during the last five minutes.”

“We hung in there for three quarters and then came back,” said Lewis, who also had four assists, four rebounds and four steals while making 14 of 24 shots and playing a game-high 43 minutes.

Kevin McHale scored 21 points, Gamble 20 and Robert Parish 19 as the Celtics posted their ninth consecutive victory and 16th in the last 17 starts--with the only loss at Indiana on April 3.

“We played well most of the way, but we couldn’t make the layups and they won the battle inside,” Indiana’s Detlef Schrempf said. “They were supposed to win this game. Now we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

After an 87-87 tie at the start of the fourth quarter, the Pacers took a 106-103 lead with 5:22 to play. However, Gamble made a short jump shot and McHale followed with a 16-footer, putting Boston ahead to stay.

Reggie Miller led the Pacers with 29 points. Schrempf added 21.

The Pacers made eight of 17 three-point shots. The Celtics missed their only three-point attempt but held a 48-24 advantage in rebounds.

Cleveland 120, New Jersey 113--Brad Daugherty scored 40 points, a Cleveland playoff record, and had 16 rebounds and nine assists as the Cavaliers beat the Nets in their playoff opener.

It is the first time in eight playoff appearances that the Cavaliers have won their opening game. The Nets, who split the regular-season series with Cleveland, 2-2, have not won in Richfield, Ohio, since 1986.

“I was just taking whatever was coming out of our offense,” Daugherty said. “They match up well with us, so there wasn’t much need for them to double-team me, although they did a little bit later on.”

The Cavaliers, who haven’t won a playoff series since 1976, won it at the free-throw line, where they outscored the Nets, 39-15, in the game and 21-6 in the fourth quarter. Cleveland made all 21 of its fourth-quarter free throws.

“I think we definitely have to change our defensive scheme,” New Jersey’s Sam Bowie said. “Brad had 40 points, and I think 26 of them came when he was down low with a mismatch on a smaller player.”

Mark Price scored 35 points for the Cavaliers, 24 in the first half.

Drazen Petrovic scored 40 points for the Nets.