Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – The Cleveland Cavaliers, fueled by 32 points from Donovan Mitchell, beat the Toronto Raptors 126-113 on Saturday in their NBA playoff opener. James Harden added a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds, and Max Strus scored 24 points off the bench for Eastern Conference fourth seeds Cleveland, who will try to build on their advantage when they host game two of the best-of-seven series on Monday. RJ Barrett scored 24 points for the Raptors, who never led after the opening minutes and trailed by as many as 24.
Mitchell has now scored at least 30 points in an NBA record nine straight playoff series openers. “You see the focus,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said of Mitchell. “How he just gets more locked-in than ever. The goal for him now is to sustain, whatever that looks like, however many games we go, now it’s sustaining and keeping that consistency.”
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Three other series opened Saturday. The East’s third-seeded Knicks host the Atlanta Hawks, while in the West, Nikola Jokic’s third-seeded Denver Nuggets host the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers host the Houston Rockets. The Lakers and Rockets series pits Lakers superstar LeBron James against an old rival in Houston’s Kevin Durant. But James is shouldering a heavy load with league-leading scorer Luka Doncic and teammate Austin Reaves sidelined indefinitely in the wake of late-season injuries.
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