Top seeds San Antonio narrowly avoided a shock exit while NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant bagged 41 points to take Oklahoma City into the second playoff round on Wednesday.
Durant scored 16 of the Thunder’s last 20 points, including the final nine, as hosts Oklahoma City rallied from a late nine-point deficit to beat Denver 100-97 and win their best-of-seven Western Conference series four games to one.
In the Eastern Conference showdown between Miami and Philadelphia, Dwyane Wade scored 12 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter in leading Miami to a 97-91 victory over Philadelphia that advanced the Heat into a second-round NBA playoff matchup with Boston.
At San Antonio, the NBA regular-season pace-setting Spurs barely averted a shock defeat before tying the game at the final buzzer and downing Memphis 110-103 in over-time to go three games to one up in their West matchup.
Argentine guard Manu Ginobili scored 33 points, French playmaker Tony Parker added 24 and Tim Duncan contributed 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Spurs.
But it was rookie reserve Gary Neal who kept San Antonio’s title dream alive by sinking a 3-pointer over Grizzlies defender O.J. Mayo at the final buzzer of the fourth quarter to bring the Spurs level at 97-97 and force over-time.
“I was able to get a strong step in my jump shot and it went in,” Neal said. “It’s playoff basketball. The emotions are going up and down. We were able to pull it out in over-time. Nobody quit. That’s why we made it to game six.”
The Spurs, who squandered a 16-point first-half lead, exchanged points with the Grizzlies until Parker put San Antonio ahead with a 3-pointer with 93 seconds remaining in the extra five-minute period.
After a Memphis shot-clock violation, George Hill and Ginobili sank free throws in the final seconds to secure the victory.
“This was a lucky break,” Ginobili said.
The Grizzlies can still complete one of the biggest upsets in NBA playoff history with a victory in game six at home on Friday, while the Spurs must win that game and a seventh in San Antonio on Sunday to advance.
In Oklahoma City, Durant sank 14-of-27 shots, 12-of-17 from inside 3-point range, to spark an 18-6 game-closing run by the Thunder that produced the team’s first playoff series triumph since moving from Seattle in 2008.
Durant made a 3-point play to give the Thunder a 96-95 lead, answered two Raymond Felton free throws with two of his own, sank a jumper to produce the final margin and blocked J.R. Smith’s attempted tying 3-pointer at the finish.
In Miami, Dwyane Wade scored 12 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter in leading Miami to a 97-91 victory over Philadelphia that advanced the Heat into a second-round NBA playoff matchup with Boston.
Chris Bosh scored 22 points and matched Wade with a game-high 11 rebounds while LeBron James added 16 points, 10 rebounds and a game-high eight assists as Miami ousted the 76ers 4-1 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference series.
Miami, which went 1-3 against Boston this season, won a playoff series for the first time since the 2006 NBA Finals to create a much-anticipated matchup against the Celtics and superstars Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.
