LeBron James scored 18 of his 28 points in a runaway first half for the visiting Los Angeles Lakers, who cruised to a 98-78 victory over the Houston Rockets on Friday and claimed their Western Conference first-round playoff series in six games.
By virtue of the 4-2 series victory, the Lakers advance to the Western Conference semifinals and will travel to face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder for Game 1 on Tuesday.
James added seven rebounds and eight assists to his ledger. Teammate Rui Hachimura put up 21 points, hitting 5 of 7 from the 3-point arc. Austin Reaves, who started for the first time in the series, added 15 points for the Lakers.
Undermined by turnovers throughout the series, the Lakers committed just 11 giveaways while limiting Houston to 35% shooting. Alperen Sengun paired 17 points with 11 rebounds for the Rockets, who played without leading scorer Kevin Durant for the fifth time in the series. Houston finished 5 of 28 (17.9%) from deep.
Raptors 112, Cavaliers 110 (OT)
RJ Barrett made a dramatic 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left in overtime as Toronto defeated visiting Cleveland to force Game 7 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.
Barrett’s bucket from straight away hit the back of the rim, bounced high into the air and fell in between the mesh. Scottie Barnes had 25 points and 14 assists for the Raptors. Barrett finished with 24 points, as did Ja’Kobe Walter.
Evan Mobley had 26 points and 14 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who will play host to the deciding game on Sunday. Donovan Mitchell added 24 points, and James Harden had 16 points, nine assists and nine rebounds.
Pistons 93, Magic 79
Cade Cunningham scored 32 points as Detroit came back from a 24-point deficit to stun host Orlando and force a decisive Game 7 in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
The top-seeded Pistons began the fourth quarter on an 18-1 run to build an eight-point lead and ended up outscoring Orlando 55-19 in the second half. The eighth-seeded Magic missed 23 consecutive shots from the field during one stretch covering about 15 minutes in the second half.
Desmond Bane and Paolo Banchero each scored 17 points for Orlando, which was held to 12 points over the first 19 minutes of the second half as Detroit pulled ahead at 74-72 more than seven minutes to play after trailing by 22 at the half.
