Denver and Boston each seized commanding 2-0 series leads on Wednesday as the NBA’s second round opened with a wave of double-digit blowouts, while Oklahoma City and Cleveland headed home tied 1-1 with their higher-seeded opponents after splitting their first two games.

Nikola Jokic posted his second triple-double in three nights, finishing with 31 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists as the Nuggets dispatched the Los Angeles Clippers 118-104 at Ball Arena, taking a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinal. Jamal Murray added 27 points, including 5 of 8 from beyond the arc, and Aaron Gordon contributed 19 points and the defensive assignment on Kawhi Leonard for stretches of the fourth quarter.

“He just makes the right play, every single time,” Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said of Jokic in his postgame remarks. “You can throw three bodies at him and he finds the guy in the corner. We have to do a better job of taking away those secondary actions when we get back home.”

Leonard finished with 28 points but on 11-of-26 shooting, and James Harden was held to 14 points and six turnovers, his second straight subpar game. The Clippers shot 31 percent from three-point range across the two contests and have trailed by double digits at some point in every game.

In Boston, the Celtics throttled the Indiana Pacers 122-95 to take their 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal. Jayson Tatum scored 34 points and Jaylen Brown added 26 in just 28 minutes, with the starters sitting the entire fourth quarter. The Pacers, who had upset the third-seeded Miami Heat in six games in the opening round, have struggled to contain Boston’s perimeter shooting, surrendering 19 made three-pointers on Wednesday alone.

“They are the deepest team I’ve coached against in a long while,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle told reporters. “We were able to win games in the first round on tempo and on threes. Boston is not giving us either.”

Indiana point guard Tyrese Haliburton, playing through a wrist sprain sustained in Game 1, was held to 11 points and seven assists. Carlisle said Haliburton would receive additional treatment before Friday’s Game 3 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse but was expected to play.

The other two series tightened up. In Minneapolis, Oklahoma City stole Game 2 against the top-seeded Timberwolves with a 113-108 overtime win that turned on a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander step-back jumper with 11 seconds left in regulation. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 38 points and 10 assists, and Chet Holmgren added 19 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks. Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 33 points but missed a contested three at the buzzer that would have won it.

The series now shifts to Oklahoma City for Games 3 and 4, with the Thunder having homecourt advantage flipped after dropping the opener Sunday.

In Milwaukee, the Cleveland Cavaliers evened their series with the Bucks 1-1 behind a 41-point, 9-rebound performance from Donovan Mitchell and a late defensive stand that included a Jarrett Allen block on Giannis Antetokounmpo with under 30 seconds remaining. The Cavaliers won 109-103, snapping Milwaukee’s nine-game home win streak dating to early March.

Antetokounmpo had 36 points and 14 rebounds but shot just 4 of 10 from the free throw line, and the Bucks turned the ball over 17 times. Damian Lillard, who missed the back half of the regular season with an Achilles strain, was limited to 19 minutes off the bench in his first game back and scored 9 points.

“It’s a feel thing,” Lillard said of his rehab timeline. “Coach is going to bring me along the way he sees it. I’m just trying to be ready when my number’s called.”

League officials confirmed that television ratings for the opening round of the playoffs were up 14 percent over last year’s first round, with the Lakers-Warriors play-in tournament game on April 16 drawing the largest non-Finals NBA audience since 2019. ESPN and TNT executives said the post-ceasefire news cycle had likely benefited sports viewership broadly, with MLB ratings also showing modest gains in April.

Games 3 of all four series tip off Friday night. The Pacers-Celtics game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Eastern, followed by Cavaliers-Bucks at 8 p.m., Clippers-Nuggets at 9:30 p.m., and Thunder-Timberwolves at 10 p.m. Should current series leads hold, the conference finals could begin as early as May 12, with the NBA Finals tentatively scheduled to open June 4.

Coaches and players around the league said the compressed turnaround between rounds, with only one day off between the close of the first round and the second-round openers, had taken a visible toll. League officials said scheduling adjustments would be evaluated this offseason.