Round up of Tuesday's NBA play-off action

Tim Duncan scored 12 of his 21 points in the second half as the San Antonio Spurs moved to the brink of the second round with a 111-107 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers in Game Five on Tuesday night.

Kawhi Leonard scored 18 points for the defending NBA champion Spurs, who took a 3-2 series lead with their second straight victory at Staples Center.

San Antonio's lead dwindled to one point in the final minute after the Clippers made a desperate 7-1 run, but Blake Griffin missed a leaping leaner with five seconds left. Jordan tipped it in, but touched the ball inside the cylinder, a ruling upheld on video review.

Game Six takes place on Thursday in San Antonio.

Griffin had 30 points and 14 rebounds, but missed two free throws with 39 seconds to play. Los Angeles missed 16 free throws overall while getting pushed to the brink of elimination.

James Harden scored 28 points and Terrence Jones had 10 of his 15 in the fourth quarter as the Houston Rockets beat the Dallas Mavericks 103-94 for its first playoff series victory since 2009.

Houston won the Western Conference series 4-1 to advance to face the winner of the Clippers-Spurs series in the second round.

The Rockets bounced back from a lacklustre performance in a 121-109 loss in Game Four to head to the West semi-finals for the first time since Yao Ming starred for Houston.

Dwight Howard had 18 points and 19 rebounds to help the Rockets dominate inside and Josh Smith scored 20 points, while the Mavericks couldn't get going from long-range, going just 5-of-26 on 3-pointers.