The San Antonio Spurs and the Brooklyn Nets have advanced to the second round of the NBA playoffs with tense game-seven victories on Sunday.
The top-seeded Spurs were pushed to the brink by Western Conference rivals the Dallas Mavericks, but, with their season on the line, responded with an emphatic 119-96 win to take out the series four games to three.
They next face the Portland Trail Blazers in the semi-finals starting Tuesday after they beat Houston in six games.
Spurs star Tony Parker led the way with 32 points, while Manu Ginobili scored 20 and Australia's Patty Mills added seven in his 17 minutes on court.
"We have a lot of respect for Dallas, they're a great team," Parker said.
"They made it very hard on us. The whole series it was a hard fight."
The game was the last of a record five game sevens in the opening round of the playoffs.
The total already matches the NBA record for the most seventh games in all rounds in any playoff year.
Earlier, the Nets survived a frantic final push by Toronto, edging the Raptors 104-103 to win the best-of-seven Eastern Conference series four games to three.
They will next face two-time defending champions Miami in the second round of the playoffs, with the Heat to host game one on Tuesday.
But it came down to the final second, when Brooklyn's Paul Pierce managed to block Raptors guard Kyle Lowry's potential game-winning jump shot to preserve the one-point margin.
"Lowry, we knew he was going to get to the hole," Pierce said. "There was a scramble for the ball. I saw him go up, I went up for the block.
"Clean block at the end, it was a great playoff series," Pierce added of the drama-filled seven-game set.
The Nets forced the deciding game seven with a 97-83 victory in Brooklyn on Friday.
On Sunday they finished the job, advancing in the post-season for the first time since they beat the Raptors in 2007.
The Nets had led by 10 points with less than six seconds remaining, but the Raptors, cheered on by a manic home crowd, continued to press.
"They're a grind it out team," Pierce said. "They have so many fourth-quarter comebacks.
"I just think we have to do a better job defending," said Pierce, adding: "This was a great, great series. I'm glad to be a part of it."
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