NBA playoffs: John Wall leads Wizards past Hawks; Warriors pull away from Trail Blazers

John Wall scored a playoff career-high 32 points and Markieff Morris added 21 in his NBA playoff debut as the Washington Wizards beat the Atlanta Hawks 114-107 Sunday in Game 1 of their first-round series.

Wall scored 15 points in the third quarter and finished with 14 assists in the best playoff performance of his young career.

Morris, in his first taste of the postseason after 448 regular-season games, caught fire early in the second half to push Washington ahead, and the Wizards held on to take the series lead.

Bradley Beal had 22 points for the Wizards, who got enough from their top players to offset 25 points from Atlanta’s Dennis Schroder and 19 from Paul Millsap.

Center Dwight Howard had 14 rebounds but just seven points for the Hawks, who dominated inside and on the boards early but couldn’t contain Wall, Beal and Morris.

at Golden State 121, Portland 109: Kevin Durant had 32 points and 10 rebounds in his Warriors playoff debut, Stephen Curry scored 29 points, and Golden State withstood a sensational day by the Trail Blazers’ backcourt duoof CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard in Game 1 of the first-round series.

McCollum scored a playoff career-best 41 points and Lillard had 34, but the Warriors made the crucial big plays on both ends down the stretch with Portland playing without injured center Jusuf Nurkic.

Draymond Green contributed 19 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists and five blocked shots to help last season’s NBA runner-up take the first step in what it is counting on to be a championship run.

Durant made 12 of 20 shots from the field, showing no issues from a recent left knee injury that sidelined him 19 games before he returned for the final three regular-season contests. He patted his chest after two consecutive fourth-quarter baskets and said, “I got this!�

Game 2 is Wednesday night at Oracle Arena.

Chicago 106, at Boston 102: The Chicago Bulls waited until the final night of the regular season to cement their spot in the postseason. Jimmy Butler made sure the wait for a playoff victory was a short one.

Butler had 30 points and nine rebounds and the Bulls outlasted top-seeded Boston 106-102 in Game 1 on Sunday on an emotional night for grieving Celtics star Isaiah Thomas.

Playing a day after 22-year-old sister Chyna Thomas was killed in a car accident in their home state of Washington, Thomas led the Celtics with 33 points. But Butler overcame a united Garden crowd and led Chicago to the victory, scoring 23 points in the second half.

“We were so locked in all week,� Butler said. “We knew their stuff, just like they knew ours. But we executed extremely well. We haven’t done that all season, but this is the right time to do it.�

at Houston 118, Oklahoma City 87: James Harden scored 37 points to outshine Russell Westbrook and the Houston Rockets pulled away in the third quarter and coasted to a 118-87 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

The best-of-seven Western Conference series continues Wednesday night in Houston.

The third-seeded Rockets were up by 20 when Harden came off the bench with about seven minutes remaining. He went right to work — making two 3-pointers to power 10-0 run and push the lead to 110-80 with 4 1/2 minutes left. Harden, who along with Westbrook is a front-runner for MVP, went to the bench after that and both teams cleared their benches soon after that.

Westbrook had 22 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, but made just six of 23 shots and had nine turnovers for the sixth-seeded Thunder.

Harden also had nine assists and seven rebounds, and Patrick Beverley had a playoff career-best 21 points along with 10 rebounds for the Rockets.