Houston

Kevin Durant scored 37 points and Klay Thompson added 28 to lead Golden State to a 119-106 win in the long-awaited showdown with Houston in Game 1 of the Western Conference final on Monday night.

Starting a playoff series on the road for the first time since 2014, the Warriors trailed by as many as 9 early, but had evened it up by halftime and used a big run at the beginning of the fourth to pull away.

Eric Gordon opened the final period with a 3-pointer to get the top-seeded Rockets within four, but Thompson scored the first eight points of a 13-4 run to make it 100-87 with about eight minutes left.

Houston used a 9-3 spurt, where James Harden scored five, to cut the lead to 103-96 with less than five minutes to go. But Thompson struck again, hitting a wide open 3 to leave the Warriors ahead by 10 with four minutes left. Steph Curry added 18 for the Warriors.

Harden scored 41 to lead the Rockets, who lost at home for the second time this postseason.

Knicks: After going 29-53 and finishing with the league's ninth-worst record, the Knicks have a 1.7 percent chance of getting the first overall pick and have 6.1 percent odds of jumping into the top three spots in Tuesday night's NBA draft lottery.