Basketball

MIAMI (AP) — The good news for the Miami Heat is that the Boston Celtics might not be back in South Florida for a few months. And that’s also the bad news for the Heat.

MIAMI (AP) — Boston center Kristaps Porzingis left the Celtics' playoff game in Miami on Monday night late in the first half with what the team said was right calf tightness. The play happened with about 2:35 left in the second quarter.

DENVER (AP) — Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray started Game 5 of the defending NBA champions’ playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night despite a strained left calf.

MIAMI (AP) — Lionel Messi took a night off to watch the Miami Heat.

NEW YORK (AP) — Perhaps neither Milwaukee nor Philadelphia would've been good enough to beat a Boston team that ran away to the NBA's best record. The Bucks and 76ers surely never thought about going out in the first round of the playoffs, though.

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (AP) — Donovan Mitchell paused while answering a question to adjust the wireless microphone pinned to the front of his wine-colored practice jersey. The All-Star guard wanted to make sure everyone could hear.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jalen Brunson had just finished the highest-scoring game of his playoff career, the highest ever by a New York Knicks player in the postseason, and he was impressed. Not by his own performance. Brunson loathes talking about that.

DALLAS (AP) — Paul George and James Harden are two-for-two without Kawhi Leonard in the Los Angeles Clippers' first-round playoff series against Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana center Myles Turner found a simple lesson from last week's Game 1 loss. When you find the openings, take shots without hesitating. Turner effectively put his new strategy to use Sunday night and it worked perfectly, again.

PHOENIX (AP) — Minnesota star Anthony Edwards noticed early in the third quarter that the Phoenix Suns switched up their defense, playing him one-on-one most of the time instead of using the double teams from the first half.