Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – The Los Angeles Lakers, fueled by 29 points from LeBron James, beat the Houston Rockets 112-108 in an overtime thriller on Friday to take a 3-0 stranglehold in their NBA playoff series. James, the 41-year-old superstar playing in his 19th post-season, came up with a steal and a game-tying three-pointer with 13.6 seconds left in regulation. He couldn’t get a potential game-winner to drop at the buzzer, but added a steal and a block in a frantic overtime as the Lakers pushed the Rockets to the brink of elimination in the best-of-seven Western Conference series. No NBA team has come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series.
“It was just a gutty win for us,” said James, who added 13 rebounds, six assists, and three steals and wasn’t the only player gasping by the end of overtime. The Lakers will have a chance to close out the series in Houston on Sunday, a position many doubted they would be in with league-leading scorer Luka Doncic and teammate Austin Reaves sidelined by injury. With Doncic and Reaves absent, James said, the Lakers “don’t have the luxury of being passive or being complacent.”
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“Our whole mindset is we have to do everything it takes in that particular game, in that particular moment, in that particular possession…because we don’t have a lot of room for error.” The young Rockets, with veteran star Kevin Durant out with a sprained ankle, were led by Alperen Sengun’s 33 points and 16 rebounds. They rallied from an early 15-point deficit and led by six with less than 30 seconds left in regulation. But a Houston turnover was followed by a foul on Marcus Smart as he attempted a three-pointer. Smart made all three free-throws to cut the Lakers’ deficit to 101-98 and set the stage for James’s game-tying basket.
Sengun missed a potential go-ahead basket before James was off-target from beyond the arc and they went to overtime, with Smart scoring eight of his 21 points in the extra session.
– No Wemby, no problem –
Elsewhere in the West, the San Antonio Spurs erased a 15-point third-quarter deficit and swept to a 120-108 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, despite missing star Victor Wembanyama as he recovers from a concussion. Stephon Castle’s 33 points included 11 in the fourth quarter and rookie Dylan Harper added 27 points and 10 rebounds off the bench as the Spurs roared home to take a 2-1 series lead. They had dropped game two at home after Wembanyama was injured in a hard fall. The 22-year-old French star cheered from the bench as his teammates turned the tide in Portland, where they will try to build on their series lead on Sunday.
– Resilient Celtics –
In Philadelphia, Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown scored 25 points apiece to lead the Celtics to a 108-100 victory over the 76ers and a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference series. In a game that neither team led by more than 10 points, the Celtics were up by five going into the fourth quarter. Tyrese Maxey’s three-pointer briefly put the Sixers up 85-84, and Philadelphia were within one when Tatum drilled a three-pointer that pushed Boston’s lead to 100-96 with 1:57 left to play.
Payton Pritchard added another three-pointer with the shot-clock winding down before Tatum — who missed most of the season after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in last year’s playoffs — drained a dagger trey that sealed it for Boston. “We just were resilient,” Tatum told broadcaster Prime. “We stuck with it. It’s a game of runs…you’ve got to answer.” Maxey scored 31 points to lead the Sixers, while Paul George added 18 and rookie VJ Edgecombe contributed 10 points and 10 rebounds for Philadelphia, who host game four on Sunday.
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