Warriors hold off Pelicans in NBA

Apr 19, 2015 - 5:18 AM Andrew Bogut admits Golden State tightened up as they battled to hold off the New Orleans Pelicans in the first game of the NBA Western Conference playoffs.

The top-seeded Warriors powered to a big lead before holding on for a 106-99 home win to open their best-of-seven game series against the conference's eight seeds.

Sharp-shooting point guard Stephen Curry scored 34 points, while Australian centre Bogut had 12 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks in just over 30 minutes of court time.

Pelicans centre Anthony Davis came up big in his playoff debut for New Orleans, scoring 20 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter.

It was a night when the Warriors looked like living up to their status as the best-performed team in the regular-season with a blowout.

But the battle-hardened Pelicans, who didn't lock up the last playoff berth in the West until the final night of the regular season, just wouldn't go away.

"Give them credit, they battled and we tightened up a little bit and we couldn't score or get stops at the right time ... they kept chipping away at that lead ... we are thankful we got that win," Bogut said.

"Our defence was great for three quarters, especially in the first half ... we've just go to build on that."

New Orleans put together a 14-0 scoring run bridging the third and fourth quarters, trimming a 25-point deficit to 11.

Curry and Klay Thompson responded for Golden State, draining back-to-back three-pointers to launch a 7-0 run but the Pelicans fashioned a 7-0 run of their own to pull within 93-83 with less than four minutes to play.

New Orleans trimmed the deficit to four in the final minute, but couldn't get any closer.

Elsewhere in the West, James Harden had 24 points and 11 assists for Houston as the second-seeded Rockets launched their playoff campaign with a 118-108 victory over Dallas Mavericks.

Harden became the first Rockets player to record at least 20 points and 10 assists in a post-season game since Tracy McGrady in 2007.

But he had plenty of help from his team-mates.

Terrence Jones finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists while Trevor Ariza scored 12 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and handed out six assists.

Dwight Howard added 11 points and five blocks despite foul trouble, and Jason Terry made four three-pointers.

In the Eastern Conference, Paul Pierce led the Washington Wizards over the Toronto Raptors 93-86 in overtime to open their playoff series.

Pierce scored five of his 20 points in overtime, and Brazilian Nene had 12 points and 13 rebounds.

Also in the East, a resurgent Derrick Rose scored 23 points to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 103-91 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks in Chicago.

Rose, who has battled a string of injuries since his Most Valuable Player campaign in 2010-11, missed 31 games this season.

He hadn't appeared in a post-season game since tearing a knee ligament in 2012 against Philadelphia.

But his explosive talent was on full display as he connected on nine of 16 shots from the floor and handed out seven assists.

Jimmy Butler scored a game-high 25 points and Spanish big-man Pau Gasol scored 10 points and pulled down 13 rebounds for the Bulls, who will host the Bucks in game two on Monday.

Source: AAP