The Boston Celtics, the best team of the regular season, assumed this status with a large success at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers 120-95.
The Celtics almost never let the Cavaliers take the lead, and controlled the game with 32 points from Jaylen Brown and 25 from Derrick White, effective from afar (7 out of 12).
Highly visible in the first round for a success in seven matches against Orlando (4-3), Donovan Mitchell scored 33 points for Cleveland, still deprived of pivot Jarrett Allen, injured in the ribs.
“It all starts on defense, we wanted to set the tone on that side, and we managed to keep them under 100 points,” said Jaylen Brown. We felt like we had the answer to everything, we played the right way.”
Boston hosts Cleveland again on Thursday for Game 2.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, No. 1 in the Western Conference, started their series perfectly against the Dallas Mavericks (117-95) and remains undefeated in these play-offs after sweeping the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round (4-0).
After a balanced start to the game, the Thunder accelerated from the middle of the 2nd quarter in the wake of the Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (29 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists), who is one of the three contenders for the award of MVP awarded Wednesday.
Slovenian Luka Doncic, also in the trio in the MVP race with Serbian Nikola Jokic, was limited to 19 points, his first game with less than 20 points since March 19, with Kyrie Irving scoring 20 points for the Mavericks .
Dallas was less skillful (39.3% shooting skill compared to 44.9%) and suffered from numerous turnovers (15), before trying its luck again in Oklahoma on Thursday for match 2.