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Mills, Delly into 2nd rd of NBA playoffs

Another injury to MVP Stephen Curry couldn't stop the Golden State Warriors beating the Houston Rockets to take a 3-1 lead in the NBA playoffs series.

Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry
Stephen Curry suffered a new leg injury, but the Warriors were still victorious against Houston. (AAP)

Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova are moving on to the second round of the NBA playoffs, Aron Baynes is out and Andrew Bogut needs one more win.

On a drama-filled day for Australia's NBA players, Mills' San Antonio Spurs were the first to advance when they defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 116-95 to sweep their first round series 4-0.

Dellavedova's Cleveland Cavaliers beat Baynes' Detroit Pistons in a 100-98 thriller to also clinch their series 4-0 on Sunday.

Bogut's defending champion Golden State Warriors demolished the Houston Rockets 121-94 to take a 3-1 lead, despite concerns for superstar teammate Stephen Curry who suffered his second leg injury of the playoffs when he fell and hurt his knee.

"He'll have an MRI tomorrow. That's all I can tell you," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

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Curry, who badly sprained his right ankle in game one and was forced to sit out two games, slipped and went down awkwardly on the last play before halftime with the scores locked 56-56 and played no further part.

It appeared Curry lost his footing on part of Houston's Toyota Center court where sweaty Rockets forward Donatas Motiejunas had just fallen.

The top-seeded Warriors showed their great allround talent as they shrugged off Curry's injury and shared the workload to extend their lead to 97-76 by the end of the third quarter, with Klay Thompson hitting four three-pointers in the period and Draymond Green dropping three.

"Steph's our leader and MVP, but at the same time and without sounding insensitive to Steph, we have a game we are trying to win," Bogut said.

"... We weren't around here lighting candles and holding hands."

Game five of the best-of-seven series will be played at the Warriors' Oracle Arena on Wednesday, when a Warriors win would eliminate the Rockets.

The Warriors vowed to step up and play for Curry.

"We always say 'strength in numbers' for a reason," said Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala, who had 22 points.

"If one guy goes down we have to have the rest of the guys fill in collectively."

Dellavedova and Baynes went head-to-head with aggressive play and traded baskets during the intense Cavaliers-Pistons match-up in Detroit.

Late in the third quarter Dellavedova used a hesitation step to get around Baynes for a lay-up and shortly after Baynes grabbed an offensive rebound and put it in the basket while Dellavedova was hanging off his arm.

Dellavedova had 11 points while Baynes finished with two points and three rebounds.

Cavaliers' Australian-born guard Kyrie Irving was the star, scoring 31 points, including a clutch three-pointer with 42 seconds to go and a buzzer beater earlier from half court.

The Cavaliers will play the winner of the Atlanta Hawks-Boston Celtics series which is 2-2 after the Celtics won 104-95 on Sunday.

Mills had nine points in the Spurs' sweep of the Grizzlies and will face Oklahoma City or the Dallas Mavericks in the next round.

Spurs' Kawhi Leonard led the way for the Spurs with 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots in a game that was delayed when a power outage blacked out Memphis' FedEx Forum arena in the second quarter.

AAP pm


3 min read

Published

Source: AAP



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