Russell Westbrook and Oklahoma City Thunder hold off San Antonio Spurs in wild ending

Russell Westbrook had 29 points and 10 assists Monday night and the Oklahoma City Thunder held on to defeat the San Antonio Spurs, 98-97, at San Antonio to even their Western Conference semifinal playoff series at 1-1 when the Spurs failed to score on a wild sequence in the final seconds.

Kevin Durant added 28 points as the Thunder handed the Spurs only their second home loss of the season, rebounding from a 32-point beating in Game 1.

Oklahoma City’s Dion Waiters appeared to push Manu Ginobili while inbounding to start the final possession and Danny Green stole the ball from Durant.

Patty Mills missed an open three-point shot from the right corner, LaMarcus Aldridge lost the ball after grabbing the airball and Kawhi Leonard was unable to gather the ball before the buzzer sounded.

Aldridge scored 41 points.

Game 3 is Friday at Oklahoma City.

at Cleveland 104, Atlanta 93: LeBron James scored 25 points, Kyrie Irving scored 21 and the Cavaliers withstood a strong comeback to maintain their chokehold on the Hawks in the opening game of their second-round Eastern Conference series.

James converted a critical three-point play with 2:09 to play and the Cavaliers, who fell behind in the fourth quarter after leading by 18 points, regained control.

The Cavaliers swept Atlanta in last year’s Eastern Conference finals and has won eight in a row over the Hawks. They’re 9-0 against the Hawks in the playoffs.

This was by no means easy, however.

“We needed everything,” said James, who gave his team just that, adding nine assists, seven rebounds and five steals. “We played an OK game. I don’t think we played to our standards. The first game is always kind of a feel-out.”

Dennis Schroder scored a playoff career-high 27 and rallied the Hawks before they crumbled in the closing minutes. Atlanta’s offense bogged down in crunch time and the Hawks made only two shots in the last four minutes.

Paul Millsap added 17 points and 13 rebounds for Atlanta, which got only eight points from Jeff Teague.

James’ three-point play, which he punctuated by flexing his biceps, came after he stripped the ball from Schroder and the Cavaliers kept their possession alive with offensive rebounds by Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith.

Game 2 is Wednesday night.