Playing without their injured backcourt of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, the Lakers received a boost from sharpshooter Luke Kennard, who made all five of his three-point attempts to score a career playoff-high 27 points.
LeBron James had a double-double as Los Angeles managed a 107-98 win over the Rockets, whose star Kevin Durant sat out the game with a knee injury on Sunday morning Hong Kong time.
In Denver, Nikola Jokic’s 25-point triple-double and 30 points from Jamal Murray propelled the Nuggets to a 116-105 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic added 13 rebounds and 11 assists, shaking off a slow start that saw him score just six points in the first half to help the Nuggets pull away in a game tied 62-62 at halftime.
Murray scored 17 of his 30 in the first half to keep the Nuggets close, finishing a perfect 16 of 16 from the free-throw line.
The third playoff series in four seasons between the teams got off to a physical start at Denver’s Ball Arena, with more than 40 fouls called, a flagrant foul called on Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels and a technical on Denver coach David Adelman.
“Winning a grimy game, it’s good,” Adelman said.
“Both teams are experienced and used to winning these games. They know what it means to play in a physical match-up. There’s a respect on both sides. There’s also a want to win.”
In the Eastern Conference, the third-seeded New York Knicks and fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers opened with comfortable victories.
Jalen Brunson scored 28 points and Karl-Anthony Towns added 25 for the Knicks in a 113-102 victory over the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden.
Brunson scored 19 points in the first quarter to help the Knicks emerge from the back-and-forth period with a 30-24 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Towns stepped it up in the second half, scoring 19 points on his own to keep things rolling for a Knicks team aiming to improve on their trip to last year’s Eastern Conference finals.
CJ McCollum scored 26 points to lead the Hawks.
In Cleveland, Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points to fuel the Cavaliers in a 126-113 win over the Toronto Raptors.
James Harden added a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds and Max Strus scored 24 points off the bench for the Cavs, who host game two.
RJ Barrett scored 24 points for the Raptors, who never led after the opening minutes and trailed by as many as 24. (Additional reporting from AFP)
