LeBron James scored 30 points and Anthony Davis added 25 and 23 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers avoided a sweep with a 119-108 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday in their Western Conference first-round series. (More Basketball News)
🔥D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves each added 21 points to help the Lakers end an 11-game losing streak to the Nuggets, a stretch that included seven consecutive playoff losses.
🌳The Lakers, who notched their first win over the Nuggets since December 2022, will try to stave off elimination again in Game 5 back in Denver on Monday.
Nikola Jokic🦩 had 33 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists for his 18th career playoff triple-double and second in this series.
ဣMichael Porter Jr. added 27 points and 11 rebounds for the defending NBA champion Nuggets.
🙈Los Angeles pushed its lead to 106-87 with six minutes remaining, but Denver whittled it down to six on Jokic’s three-point play with 1:25 to play. Reaves, though, hit a short jumper and added four free throws to seal the win.
Celtics roll over Heat
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown led a balanced attack with 22 points apiece and the Boston Celtics led wire-to-wire in a 104-84 rout of the Miami Heatℱ to take a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
🍸Game 4 is Monday in Miami, where the Celtics are 9-2 in their last 11 games and 6-1 in their last seven in the postseason.
💖Kristaps Porzingis added 18 points and Derrick White had 16 for top-seeded Boston, which reclaimed the home-court edge that it lost when Miami won Game 2.
ꦅThe Celtics continued their bounce-back trend, improving to 15-4 in the games immediately following a loss this season with an average margin of victory in those games of 12.2 points.
Bam Adebayo scored 20 points and Nikola Jovic🐼 added 15 for the Heat, who are still without starters Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier due to injuries.
Thunder push Pelicans to brink of sweep
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 24 points and the Oklahoma City Thunder knocked down 17 3-pointers in a 106-85 win over the New Orleans Pelicans for a 3-0 lead in their first-round series.
♓Jalen Williams and Josh Giddey each scored 21 points and combined to go 7 for 11 from long range to help the top-seeded Thunder move a win away from the franchise’s first postseason sweep since eliminating Dallas in 2011-12.
꧒Oklahoma City can complete the sweep in New Orleans in Game 4 on Monday night. No team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit.
😼Brandon Ingram scored 19 points and CJ McCollum added 16 for the Pelicans, who continued to struggle offensively without injured star Zion Williamson. They were 9 for 32 from 3-point range and turned the ball over 21 times, leading to 23 Thunder points.
𓆉The Thunder took control with a 14-0 run in the second quarter for a 54-39 lead. They led 60-46 at halftime and maintained at least a 10-point advantage the rest of the way.
