'What a finish: NBA fans lose it over wild Celtics buzzer-beater

The Boston Celtics have taken game one of their NBA first round playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets, with Jayson Tatum sending the crowd wild with a last-second game winner.

It was a somewhat acrimonious game with the Celtics crowd constantly booing Nets point guard Kyrie Irving, who had 39 points and at one point appeared to flip off the home fans.

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Boston pulled away to a 15-point lead at one point, before the Nets, largely through Irving, dug their heels in and fought their way back into the game.

Back to back triples for Irving to start the fourth quarter kickstarted a 15-2 run in the Nets' favour, with the visitors eventually able to take a three-point advantage, 114-111, with just 45 seconds to play.

The Celtics managed a quick layup through Jaylen Brown to cut the margin back to one point, before a Kevin Durant heave late in the shot clock missed for the Nets.

Opting not to take a timeout for the final possession of the game, Brown dribbled downcourt before finding Marcus Smart, who passed up a shot to find Tatum streaking to the basket.

As the clock ticked down to zero, Tatum pirouetted around Irving to lay the ball in at the buzzer, sedond sending the Boston Garden into a frenzy.

“Our aggressiveness (in the third quarter) was great,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said after the game.

“It was different from the first half. I felt like, offensively, we got going as well, knocked a little bit of the rust off in the first half.”

Fans on social media couldn't believe what they had seen.

Game two of the series will tip off in two days, before the series swings to Brooklyn for games three and four.

Tatum finished with 31 points and Brown with 23 for the Celtics, while Durant had an uncharacteristically quiet outing for just 23 points.

NBA playoffs in full swing after wild results

Jordan Poole exploded for 30 points as the Golden State Warriors rolled to an easy 123-107 victory over the Denver Nuggets in the opening contest of their NBA Western Conference first-round series in San Francisco.

Stephen Curry added 16 points in 22 minutes off the bench after missing the previous 12 games with a left foot injury.

Curry's timing was off as he finished 5-of-13 shooting in his first action since March 16.

Nikola Jokic registered 25 points, 10 rebounds and six assists for Denver.

Poole was 9-of-13 shooting - including 5 of 7 from 3-point range - as his point total tied Hall of Famer Mitch Richmond (1989) for the second-highest scoring playoff debut in Warriors' history.

Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points after a rough start and Bojan Bogdanovic had 26 as the Utah Jazz took advantage of Luka Doncic's absence to defeat the hosts Dallas Mavericks 99-93 in ther NBA Western Conference first-round series.

Mitchell had a rough overall game from the field, shooting 10-for-29, and only scored two points in the first half before exploding for 30 in the second half.

He also had six rebounds and six assists. MIke Conley added 13 points, six rebounds and three assists for the Jazz.

Dallas played without their superstar after Doncic suffered a left calf strain in the regular season finale against San Antonio.

Anthony Edwards scored 36 points in his post-season debut as the seventh-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves stunned the No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies 130-117.

The Timberwolves, fresh off beating the Los Angeles Clippers in the play-in game, won their first playoff opener since 2004.

With AAP

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