Rose leads Bulls past Celtics

BOSTON - Derrick Rose scored 36 points in his playoff debut and helped the Chicago Bulls do something not even Michael Jordan could: beat the Boston Celtics in the postseason.

Rose had 11 assists to go with his career high in points, and Tyrus Thomas made a jumper from the corner with 51 seconds left in overtime to lead the Bulls to a 105-103 victory over the defending NBA champions in Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round series.

Rajon Rondo scored 29 points with nine rebounds and seven assists for Boston, which was without Kevin Garnett and without much help from the rest of the Big Three, either.

Paul Pierce scored 23 points on 8-of-21 shooting, but missed the potential game-winning free throw at the end of regulation and had a potential game-tying basket blocked with 3.7 seconds left in overtime. Ray Allen, who scored four points on 1-for-12 shooting, had a chance to send it into a second overtime but his jumper from the right side bounced off the back of the rim.

Game 2 is Monday, the anniversary of the 1986 playoff game when Jordan scored 63 points against Boston - in a Bulls loss. In fact, Chicago had not beaten the Celtics in 10 postseason games since the Chicago Stags beat the Celtics in the 1948 Basketball Association of America quarterfinals.

Too hurt to play and too frustrated to watch, Garnett took refuge in the locker room after the first half while his teammates rallied from an 11-point deficit. Rondo hit a short jumper over Joakim Noah in the lane to give the Celtics a 96-95 lead, but Rose put Chicago ahead on two free throws with 9.4 seconds left in regulation.

Noah fouled Pierce with 2.6 seconds left, but after tying it 97-all with the first free throw the Celtics captain missed the second and the game went into overtime.

► Cavaliers 102, Pistons 84: At Cleveland, LeBron James banked in a 3-pointer at the halftime horn and Cleveland's superstar finished with 38 points, eight rebounds and seven assists as the Cavaliers embarked on their quest for a first NBA championship with a win over Detroit in Game 1.

James' 41-foot runner stunned the Pistons and gave Cleveland, the league's most dominant team - home or away - during the regular season, a 12-point halftime lead. The Cavaliers held off one second-half push by Detroit while James was on the bench and closed out the Pistons, who will try to even the best-of-seven series in Game 2 on Tuesday night.

To do that, Detroit will have to devise something to slow James, who had his way for 41 minutes.

Joe Smith scored 13 points and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 12 and 10 rebounds for Cleveland.

Rodney Stuckey scored 20 and Richard Hamilton 15 for the Pistons, who came in as a No. 8 seed and could be in for a shorter postseason run after making the Eastern Conference final the past six years.

James closed the first half with another one of those plays that separates him from other players.

► Mavericks 105, Spurs 97: At San Antonio, Josh Howard led the Mavericks to their first postseason road victory since their NBA finals run in 2006, scoring 25 points in a win over San Antonio.

The sixth-seeded Mavericks, who had lost nine consecutive playoff road games, took a big Game 1 win over their Texas rivals in typically tough San Antonio. It was just the Spurs' fourth home playoff loss since 2007.

Tim Duncan scored 27 points, and Tony Parker had 24 for the Spurs.

Game 2 is Monday night in San Antonio.

Dallas hasn't won a playoff series there since 2006, when it beat the Spurs in a thrilling seven-game West semifinals series before losing to Miami in the finals. This one had the look of that memorable, neck-and-neck series before Dallas pulled away in the fourth, when unlikely star Jose Barea scored seven of his 13 points.

As the sellout crowd trudged toward the exits, about a dozen Mavs fans in green and blue hollered "Let's go Mavs!"

San Antonio entered the playoffs facing big doubts about how it would fare without Manu Ginobili, who's out for the playoffs with an injured ankle. In the fourth quarter, when the Spurs could've used his offense and energy the most, the Spurs were outscored 31-23 and let the Mavs shoot nearly 58 percent.

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