PORTLAND — The Maine Red Claws, winners of the Atlantic Division and NBA D-league playoff top seed, hope to extend their first round, best-of-three, playoff series today against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (29-22 overall, 15-11 home, 14-11 away) at 4 p.m. at the Portland EXPO.

Maine (35-16 overall, 20-6 home, 15-10 away) trails the series 1-0 having lost the first game 104-103 in overtime on Tuesday in Fort Wayne. Maine carries a nine-game home win steak and has not lost at home since February 5. If the Red Claws win today ”“ it would be their first ever playoff game victory ”“ the third and deciding game will be played on Sunday at the EXPO at 4:30 p.m.

With 13 NBA affiliates, the Mad Ants rank second in the league in defensive rating. Jordan Crawford, who averaged 22.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists during the regular season, led Fort Wayne against Maine with 28 points and 11 rebounds. Crawford, a 26 year old 6-foot-4 guard with 257 games and 99 starts of NBA experience, played in 39 for the Boston Celtics in 2013-14 and averaged 13.7 points and 5.7 assists per game, before being traded to Golden State in January. In his four NBA seasons he averaged 12.2 points per game along with an 82.7-percent career free throw shooting percentage. He has yet to appear in the NBA this season, as he began the year in China before joining Fort Wayne in March.

Mad Ants 6-foot-8 rookie forward C.J. Fair (Syracuse) also had 28 points on Tuesday, a career high He brings averages of 13.9 points and 5.7 rebounds to today’s contest.

Rookie forward James Young (Kentucky) leads Maine in scoring with 21.5 points per game and in 3-point shot accuracy at 44.2 percent. He is fourth among Red Claws with 4.8 rebounds per game. In addition to playing 17 games with the Red Claws, the 19 year old, drafted 17th by Boston in 2014, has averaged 3.2 points in 30 Celtics games.

In 28.5 minutes per game, second year 6-foot-8 power forward Romero Osby leads the Red Claws with 7.1 rebounds per game and is second to Young with 17.2 points. Injuries ended his first season after only 12 games and delayed his second season; but since returning to Maine in February, Osby’s energetic, aggressive play has been a key to the team’s success.

Second-year Red Claw Chris Babb tops the team in free throw percentage (79.3 percent) and minutes played (34.7), and is fourth in scoring (15.4 points per game). The 6-foot-5 Babb played in 14 games for the Celtics last season, and has just recently signed a non-guaranteed multiyear deal with Boston.

Forward Omari Johnson is second among Red Claws with 6.8 rebounds per game and third with 15.6 points playing 26.2 minutes per game, The 6-foot-9 Oregon State product is in his first D-League season.

The Red Claws are without their regular-season standout point guard Tim Frazier, who signed with the Portland Trail Blazers on March 30. Frazier played in 41 Red Claws and led Maine in most categories including scoring (16.1 points per game), assists (9.5 per game), rebounds (7.1 per game), minutes (35.6 per game), steals (1.7 per game) and free throws percentage (81.1 percent). Frazier has played in three games for the playoff-bound Blazers and in limited action has made 3 of his 4 attempted shots.

On Tuesday, the Red Claws had a chance to win but Romero Osby’s shot was blocked at the buzzer. Osby led the Claws with 24 points and 10 rebounds, Omari Johnson finished with 21 points and 17 boards; and James Young finished with 17 points.

Each of the four division winners in the 18-team league, and four wildcard teams with the next best records, two per division, qualified for the playoffs. In the first round, the wildcard teams host the first game, and the division winners host the second game and, if necessary, the third game.

In the second round and the third round, the team with the lesser regular season record hosts the first game and the team with the better regular season record hosts the second game and, if necessary, the third game.