Jayson Tatum's layup stuns Nets

The opening weekend of the NBA playoffs is always one of the most exciting times on the league calendar, and the 2022 postseason got underway Saturday in typical fashion.

The four series openers began with a pair of lower-seeded teams stealing home-court advantage with Game 1 upsets, as the Jazz topped the Mavericks in Dallas and the Timberwolves stunned the Grizzlies in Memphis.

Then a couple championship hopefuls got breakout performances from young guards as Tyrese Maxey scored 38 points to lead the Sixers past the Raptors and Jordan Poole had 30 points to lift the Warriors over the Nuggets.

Sunday promises even more excitement with four more series openers.

The league-leading Suns look to continue their dominance against the Pelicans. The defending-champion Bucks start their road to a repeat against the Bulls. And the Celtics and Nets tip-off in what might be the most interesting series of the first round.

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Follow along with USA TODAY Sports throughout the day for live updates and analysis from all of Sunday’s action:

Quick takeaways from Boston’s victory over Brooklyn

Jayson Tatum saved the day for the Boston Celtics. His driving layup as time expired gave the Celtics a 115-114 victory. You could say the Celtics were lucky to get Game 1. The Celtics scrambled on their final possession – and Marcus Smart delivered a pass to Tatum just in time.

There’s a reason why the Brooklyn Nets are considered a dangerous No. 7 seed. They have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Even with Durant struggling in Game 1 against Boston, the Nets almost pulled off the upset thanks to Irving, who had 39 points, six assists, five rebounds, four steals and a block. And he did it in front of a Boston crowd that dismisses him for leaving the Celtics.

Irving had 13 of his 18 fourth-quarter points in the first 6:30 of the quarter and his 3-pointer with 45.9 seconds left in the game gave Brooklyn a 114-111 lead. Despite everything with Irving and the vaccine, he is a treat to watch when he’s on his game.

The Nets trailed 84-69 midway through the third quarter and 12 game minutes later, they had a 102-98 lead. Nic Claxton had a solid game off the bench (13 points, eight rebounds), but he was just 1-for-5 on fouls shots, including three misses in the fourth quarter.

Durant finished with 23 points but on a poor game from the field: 9-for-24. Don’t expect Durant to have many more games like that.

Without Celtics center Robert Williams (left knee injury), veteran big Al Horford came through with 20 points and 15 rebounds.

How did the Celtics pull this off? Tatum (31 points), Jaylen Brown (23 points), Smart (20 points) and Horford delivered enough offensively – a combined 94 points.

No matter how many games this series goes, it will be a fun one. Let’s hope it goes seven.

–Jeff Zillgitt

With Durant struggling, Nets-Celtics tied at hafltime

Brooklyn star Kevin Durant had just seven points on 2-for-10 shooting in the first half against Boston, but Kyrie Irving and Goran Dragic off the bench helped the Nets go into halftime tied with Boston at 61-all. Irving had 15 points and Dragic 11 in the opening half. Boston star Jayson Tatum had 15 points and seven assists, and Al Horford contributed 14 points. Marcus Smart had a nice all-around half with seven points, three rebounds, three assists and a steal. Brooklyn should feel good about the first-half result – on the road, tied and with Durant not making shots. The Nets just posted 61 points against the league’s best defense without much from Durant. There were 17 lead changes and eight ties in the first 24 minutes

Bruce Brown’s disparaging quote on Celtics’ inside game hits big board

Bruce Brown was asked last week about the key to slowing down a Celtics team that earned the No. 2 seed behind the play of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Because center Robert Williams III, who had surgery at the end of March to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee, is likely to miss the first-round series, Brown said he thought it would be best to focus on neutralizing Boston’s front court.

“We can’t let Tatum get 50,” Brown said. “We got to be physical with them. Now they don’t have Robert Williams, so they have less of a presence in the paint, and we could attack Al Horford and (Daniel) Theis. So they don’t have Robert Williams is huge.”

When told of his teammate’s comments just minutes earlier, Kevin Durant was noticeably irked by them.

“We respect our opponents,” Durant said. “We don’t need to talk about what we’re going to do to them. I just don’t like that, but that’s how Bruce is. He comes in and keeps the same energy throughout the whole season. But we don’t need to say (expletive) like that. Let’s just go out there and hoop.”

The Celtics scoreboard operator did their part to stoke the Celtics’ ire, putting Brown’s message on the Jumbotron.

Quick takeaways in Heat’s win over Hawks

When Duncan Robinson goes 8-for-9 on 3s and PJ Tucker makes 4-for-4, the Miami Heat are tough to beat. And that was the case in Miami’s 115-91 win against the Atlanta Hawks.

The 3-ball is an important as ever. Miami made 18-for-38 (47.4%), and Atlanta was just 10-for-36 (27.8%) – a 24-point difference just on 3s.

Good news for the Hawks: Trae Young probably won’t struggle like that again from the field. He was 1-for-12, including 0-for-7 on 3s. The last time he made just one field goal in a game was Jan. 15, 2021 against Utah.

Miami’s defense, ranked No. 4 in the regular season, forced 18 turnovers, had 12 steals and limited the Hawks to 38.7% shooting from the field.

In his first game since March 11, John Collins (foot and finger injuries) showed he can contribute. He had 10 points and four rebounds in 21 minutes.

The Heat are deep: Off the bench, Robinson led all scorers with 27 points, and nine Heat players scored at least six points. Jimmy Butler had 21 points, six rebounds and four assists, and Kyle Lowry had 10 points, nine assists, four rebounds and two steals.

Kyrie Irving receives an unfriendly Boston Garden crowd

When Kyrie Irving is introduced before the Nets face the Celtics in Boston, his cold reception wasn’t much of a mystery.

Irving, who left Boston in free agency after saying he wanted to re-sign, has not been a fan favorite there. In a return to Boston last year, Irving stepped on the Celtics’ logo mid-court. And his most recent comments on him have n’t smoothed things over.

Irving hopes everyone has moved on from that, asking fans to remember the good times they had.

“I hope we could move past my Boston era and reflect on some of the highlights I left at TD Garden that they can replay,” he told reporters this weekend. “Move forward. Just a new paradigm, baby.”