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In Brief: Celtics beat Heat in playoff opener

BOSTON (AP) — Jayson Tatum notched his first career playoff triple-double with 23 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists to lead the Boston Celtics past the Miami Heat 114-94 to open their first-round playoff series. Derrick White added 20 points and four assists for Boston, which finished with six players in double-figures. Miami spoiled the Celtics’ NBA finals dreams last season.

But Boston fed off the energy of the TD Garden crowd, knocking down 22 3-pointers and outscoring the Heat 31-14 in the third quarter. The Celtics’ lead grew as high as 34 points in the fourth. Bam Adebayo scored 24 points for the Miami, which played without star Jimmy Butler following his right knee injury during the play-in round.

CLIPPERS WIN OVER MAVERICKS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Harden scored 28 points, Ivica Zubac had a double-double and the Los Angeles Clippers defeated Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks 109-97 to win their playoff series opener. Zubac’s 20 points were a playoff career high to go with 15 rebounds.

Harden hit 6 of 11 3-pointers and had eight assists. The Clippers outdid the Mavs at their own game, making 18 of 36 3-pointers to 10 of 33 for Dallas. Doncic led the Mavs with 33 points and 13 rebounds. Kyrie Irving added 31 points and seven rebounds. The Clippers had five players in double figures without the injured Kawhi Leonard.

OHTANI PASSES HIDEKI MATSUI

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani has broken Hideki Matsui’s record for the most homers hit by a Japanese-born player in Major League Baseball.

Ohtani crushed a two-run homer deep into the right field bleachers off Adrian Houser of the New York Mets in the third inning at Dodger Stadium. The homer was the 176th of Ohtani’s six-plus seasons in the majors. That’s one more than Matsui, who played the final 10 seasons of his 20-year pro career in North America. The homer was Ohtani’s fifth for the Dodgers, who signed the two-time AL MVP to a $700 million contract last winter.

REDDICK GRABS WIN AT TALLADEGA

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — Tyler Reddick stole a victory at Talladega Superspeedway when front-runner Michael McDowell, swerving up and down the track trying to block Brad Keselowski, wound up crashing with the finish line in sight.

It was a typical Talladega finish — and set off a raucous celebration on pit road with Reddick’s team owner, Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan. McDowell was the pole-sitter and in position to give Ford its much-needed first victory of the year.

But his topsy-turvy efforts to block Keselowski — another Ford driver — wound up costing them both. McDowell crashed, Keselowski had to check up and Reddick sped by to win by 0.208 seconds.

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