Durant lifts Thunder over Mavericks

NBA: Kevin Durant scored 25 points and hit the game-winning jumper from the foul line with 1.5 seconds left to lift the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 99-98 victory over the defending champion Dallas Mavericks on Saturday in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series in Oklahoma City.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 11 of his 25 points in the final 5 minutes and hit two free throws with 9 seconds left to put Dallas ahead.

Russell Westbrook led the Thunder with 28 points.

• Heat crush Knicks: LeBron James scored 32 points before getting the fourth quarter off, Dwyane Wade added 19 and the Miami Heat rode the strength of a 32-2 run to easily beat the New York Knicks 100-67 in Game 1 of the teams’ Eastern Conference first-round series in Miami.

• Bulls win game, lose Rose: Derrick Rose scored 23 points before being helped off the court late in the game with an injured left knee, casting a major cloud over the Chicago Bulls’ 103-91 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers in a playoff opener in Chicago.

• Magic shock Pacers: Jason Richardson and Jameer Nelson scored 17 points apiece to help the sixth-seeded Orlando Magic, playing without Dwight Howard, surprise the third-seeded Indiana Pacers 81-77 in Game 1 of the first-round Eastern Conference playoff series in Indianapolis.

Kings defeat Blues in 2nd-round opener

NHL: Matt Greene scored shorthanded late in the second period for the lead and Jonathan Quick was strong in net throughout as the Los Angeles Kings beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 in the opener of a Western Conference semifinal series in St. Louis.

Slava Voynov scored for his first point of the postseason and Dustin Penner added an empty-netter for the Kings, who were 3-0 on the road while taking down the President’s Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks in five games in the first round.

• Rangers handle Capitals: Rangers rookie Chris Kreider scored the go-ahead goal and then set up Brad Richards’ insurance tally 90 seconds later in the third period to lift New York to a 3-1 victory over the Washington Capitals in the opening game of the Eastern Conference semifinal series in New York.

Kreider, who earlier this month helped Boston College win the NCAA championship, scored his second goal of his NHL career – and these playoffs – and he did it at the perfect time to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead 7 minutes into the third.

Dufner leads by two after third round

Golf: Jason Dufner shot a 5-under-par 67 to take a two-stroke lead over Graham DeLaet after the third round of the Zurich Classic in Avondale, La.

Winless in 163 starts on the PGA Tour, Dufner had a 17-under 199 total at TPC Louisiana.

DeLaet, from Canada, shot a 66. He birdied three of the final six holes.

• Lewis leads Mobile Bay: Stacy Lewis birdied five of her last seven holes to shoot a 5-under 67 and take a two-stroke lead over Brittany Lincicome into the final round of the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic in Mobile, Ala.

Nadal faces Ferrer in Barcelona final

Tennis: Six-time champion Rafael Nadal defeated Fernando Verdasco 6-0, 6-4 to ease into the Barcelona Open final, where he will face fellow Spaniard David Ferrer for a fourth time.

In the other semifinal, Ferrer held off Milos Raonic 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5).

• Top two women’s seeds square off: Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka will face No. 2 Maria Sharapova today in the final of the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany.

Azarenka beat Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 6-3 in the first semifinal and Sharapova outlasted No. 3 Petra Kvitova 6-4, 7-6 (3).

Spearmon Jr. breaks Johnson’s 200 record

Miscellany: Wallace Spearmon Jr. broke the meet record in the 200 meters set by Michael Johnson 15 years ago, highlighting the final session of the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.

Spearmon crossed in 20.02 seconds, beating the mark Johnson set in 1997 by three-hundredths of a second.

U.S. pole vaulter Jenn Suhr set a meet mark with a winning effort of 15 feet, 3 inches on her first try, as did high jumper Chaunte Lowe (6-6).

• Team USA sweeps: Team USA pulled off a clean sweep at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

Allyson Felix ran on a pair of relay teams that set Penn Relays records and the U.S. was flawless in all six relays in the “U.S.A. vs. the World” races at Franklin Field.

• Impact blank Timbers: Bernardo Corradi and Sinisa Ubiparipovic scored in the second half to lead the Montreal Impact to a 2-0 win over the Portland Timbers in MLS action in Montreal.

• Pepperdine women national champs: The Pepperdine Waves women won the national championship in the inaugural season of collegiate sand volleyball, beating Long Beach State 5-0 in the finals in Gulf Shores, Ala.

• Sanchez grabs lead: Rabobank rider Luis Leon Sanchez of Spain won the fifth stage of the Tour de Romandie in Sion, Switzerland, and took a 9-second lead over Britain’s Bradley Wiggins overall with just one day to go.

• Hierro wins Derby Trial: Hierro took charge on the outside of a four-wide sprint to the finish to capture the $200,000-added Grade 3 Derby Trial at a sloppy Churchill Downs dirt track after a violent storm moved through the area and delayed action in Louisville, Ky.

• Dawson victorious: Chad Dawson defeated Bernard Hopkins by a 12-round majority decision and won the WBC light heavyweight title in Atlantic City, N.J. The 29-year-old Dawson (31-1, 17 KOs) never let a deep cut near his left eye affect his methodical approach at taking out 47-year-old Hopkins (52-6-2).