NBA Playoffs | Smith gives Hawks a lift

ATLANTA — Give Josh Smith a perfect 10 in his personal dunking contest.

And give the Atlanta Hawks some credit: The team that was supposed to get swept by big, bad Boston in the opening round of the playoffs pulled off a win that was nine years in the making.

The high-flying Smith scored 27 points and the Hawks earned their first playoff victory since 1999, beating the Celtics 102-93 Saturday night to cut Boston's lead in the series to 2-1.

"My heart was racing, I was so excited," said Smith, who certainly did his part by dunking five times on the Celtics. "I wanted to give the city of Atlanta something to cheer about."

The Hawks are still huge underdogs to the Celtics. But for one night at least, Smith — a former NBA dunk champion — had the rim rockin' and the sellout crowd of 19,725 on its feet.

"It gets everybody going," Smith said of his above-the-hoop theatrics. "It gets the crowd going. It gets my teammates going. That's what we needed: easy points."

With everyone thinking sweep, the Hawks made sure the series will at least get back to Boston for a fifth game. They'll try to even it up in Game 4 Monday night at Philips Arena.

"We're not satisfied," said Joe Johnson, who added 23 points for Atlanta. "We have another one to get. We know it's going to be very electric Monday, and we're looking forward to it."

The Celtics know they gave Atlanta a glimmer of hope. They want to snuff it out as quickly as possible.

"We went away from what we've been doing all year," Rajon Rondo said. "I feel this is a must-win game for us Monday."

Kevin Garnett led Boston with 32 points, but the NBA's youngest playoff team had him kneeling over, looking totally exhausted, by the end of the game.

Paul Pierce, who was body-slammed to the court in Game 2, played 36 minutes with a stiff back and wasn't much of a factor. He managed 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting. Allen was 5 of 14 and held to 13 points, leaving Garnett to carry the Big Three. He also had 10 rebounds.

"They're just not going to lie down for us," Pierce said.

At Jazz 86, Rockets 82

Deron Williams scored eight of his 17 points in the fourth quarter, and Utah beat Houston for a 3-1 series lead.

Mehmet Okur had 14 points and 18 rebounds, grabbing the biggest board of the game when Williams went 0 for 2 from the line with 7.3 seconds left and Utah only ahead by two.

The Rockets host Game 5 Tuesday.

Houston cut a 16-point third quarter deficit to a point and made a great push at the end after Shane Battier and Rafer Alston made three-pointers in the final minute to get the Rockets two behind. Kyle Korver answered with two free throws for Utah to make it 84-80 with 12.5 seconds left, then after Carl Landry scored off an offensive rebound, Williams had a chance to seal it for the Jazz.

He missed both attempts, but Okur was there for the offensive rebound and made both free throws with 5.5 seconds to go.

Lakers 102,

at Nuggets 84

Denver just can't seem to keep its emotions or Kobe Bryant in check.

Bryant led a balanced offense with 22 points and Los Angeles took a 3-0 lead in their first-round series.

Game 4 is Monday night, and the Nuggets are going to have to get more out of their All-Star duo of Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson if they hope to take the series back to Staples Center.

For once, the Nuggets clamped down on defense, but their high-flying offense went AWOL as Anthony and Iverson had their worst performance together since the two superstars first teamed up 16 months ago.

"I was getting to the basket, I just wasn't finishing," Iverson said. "And the same thing happened to 'Melo."

Anthony and A.I. shot a combined 10 for 38 and finished with 16 and 15 points, respectively.

Iverson sat out all but 1:11 of the fourth quarter, when Nuggets coach George Karl emptied his bench, prompting Anthony to accuse the team of quitting.

"In a game like tonight, on our home court, us giving up as a whole is uncalled for," Anthony fumed. "Yeah. We quit. Everybody. From the coaches to the players, we quit. And I said it."

Bryant said he never sensed the Nuggets had given up until the very end.

"Well, they're down 20-something points with two minutes to go," Bryant said. "But not until that point."

Bryant had a placid first half (8 points of 3-of-8 shooting) but scored nine quick points in the third quarter to put the Lakers ahead 64-51 and quiet the Pepsi Center crowd that loves to hate him.

Magic 106,

at Raptors 94

Challenged by his coach to show more aggression, Jameer Nelson responded with a furious fourth quarter.

Nelson scored 12 of his 19 points in the final period, including 10 straight at one stretch, and Orlando took a 3-1 lead in the series.

"As a player, sometimes you start to feel it and I started to feel it in the fourth quarter," Nelson said. "I hit a couple of big shots and my teammates started looking for me. When you make shots, your confidence rises."

Former Sonic Rashard Lewis had 27 points and 13 rebounds, and Dwight Howard had 19 points, 16 boards and eight blocks for the third-seeded Magic, which hosts Game 5 of this first-round series Monday night.

Chris Bosh set a career playoff high with 39 points and had 15 rebounds for the Raptors, while T.J. Ford had 12 points and 13 assists.

Toronto faces a must-win game Monday.