WASHINGTON: Bloodied and bruised, the defending champion Boston Celtics warned NBA rivals who want to intimidate them with a physical style that they are ready to trade blows with anybody.
Jaylen Brown scored 36 points, going 5-of-7 from three-point range, and the host Celtics defeated Orlando 109-100 on Wednesday, seizing a 2-0 lead in an Eastern Conference first round best-of-seven series that continues Friday in Orlando.
The Celtics were without six-time All-Star forward Jason Tatum — their points, rebounds and assists leader — as he missed his first career playoff game after 114 appearances due to a bruised right wrist bone suffered in the series opener.
Boston center Kristaps Porzingis scored 20 points and matched Brown and Al Horford with 10 rebounds despite suffering a bloody forehead gash late in the third quarter when struck in a rebound battle by the left elbow of Orlando center Goga Bitadze, the Georgian opening a cut that required five stitches.
“It was a tough, physical game. Nothing easy on either side. Every rebound is a war and it’s probably going to be that way for the rest of the series,” Porzingis said.
“We’re going to be us. We’re not going to let anybody punk us.”
Latvia’s Porzingis said the Celtics expect a body-banging style from opponents and Boston will be ready to respond in kind.
“We expect teams to be doing this kind of stuff, to get in our heads, try to provoke us, get some reaction out of us,” Porzingis said.
“We weren’t surprised but we’re just not going to take it. We’re going to hit them right back.”
In other games, East top seed Cleveland held off visiting Miami 121-112 as Donovan Mitchell scored 17 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter and the Cavs took a 2-0 series edge with Game 3 Saturday in Miami.
At Houston, Jalen Green scored 38 points and the host Rockets beat Golden State 109-94 to level their Western Conference series at 1-1 with game three in San Francisco on Saturday.
Golden State lost Jimmy Butler to a pelvis contusion after a severe fall on a first-quarter foul by Houston’s Amen Thompson. An MRI on Thursday will detail the extent of his injury.
Turkiye’s Alperen Sengun added 17 points and 16 rebounds for Houston. Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 20 points.
After being knocked to the court, Porzingis rose and went to the locker room for a huge bandage, then returned and shot his free throws before going back to the locker room, returning to the game with 7:15 to play and a smaller bandage.
“This one was just a quick flash, a quick cut, but I saw the amount of blood as soon as I looked at my hand so I knew it was going to be some stitches for sure,” Porzingis said, comparing the action to the violence of pro wrestling.
“I love my ‘WWE’ moments for sure,” Porzingis said. “It just happens in the game. I knew getting hit again, blood again, crowd was going to go with it. It’s cool. It was fine.”
Boston led 81-71 entering the fourth quarter and the Magic got no closer than five points after that.
“We didn’t play up to our level,” Porzingis said. “I expect us to be better going forward.”
Orlando’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope fouled Tatum on the injury play in game one and in game two tripped over Horford. Both players were restrained before the second-quarter incident escalated.
The Celtics were 8-2 in the regular season without Tatum, both losses coming to Orlando.
“We’ve got a lot of talent so it just comes down to being ready,” Brown said. “We came out and were aggressive.”
At Cleveland, the Heat trailed 53-34 in the second quarter but battled back and went on an 11-1 run to pull within 101-99 with 4:25 remaining before Mitchell caught fire late.
“It was one of those ‘superstar takes over game’ situations,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said. “He hit some big-time shots.”
“Just trying to find my rhythm,” Mitchell said. “My job is just to lead every single night in any way possible. Tonight it was go score.”
Miami’s Tyler Herro scored 33 in a losing cause. Cleveland also had 21 points from Darius Garland and 20 from Evan Mobley.
