James stars as the Lakers set up a showdown with the Thunder
LeBron James scored 28 points as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets to set up a Western Conference semifinal playoff against the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
James also added seven rebounds and eight assists to help the Lakers win 98-78, securing a 4-2 series victory against the Rockets.
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The Lakers led the series 3-0 and ultimately closed out the best-of-seven game convincingly on the road at Houston, whose leading scorer was Amen Thompson with 18 points.
“A lot of our guys, frankly, haven’t been in this position, haven’t been in a lockdown situation, especially on the road, so it was important for me to come out and set the tone,” the 41-year-old James said.
He told Amazon Prime: “The mission has always remained the same, no matter what my role has been throughout my career, and that is to go out there and try to dominate.
“Obviously, I have more team experience and I have more playoff experience, so I know how a series can go. I just try to instill that in them, lose confidence and tell them to go out and play.”
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Lakers coach JJ Redick was full of admiration for the performance of James, who is the first player to take part in 23 consecutive NBA seasons and is also the league’s record scoring leader.
“To me, he had the greatest career of any NBA player,” Redick said. “You can argue all you want; I’m not interested in postulating who is the greatest of all time.
“He’s one of, if not the greatest of all time, and for him to do it again and answer the bell again, it’s kind of baffling.”
The Lakers face a difficult task against the Thunder, who finished first in the Western Conference and secured a 4-0 victory against the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
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The first game of their best-of-seven series will be at Oklahoma on Tuesday.
Pistons and Raptors set the deciders
Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons, who finished atop the Eastern Conference, produced a stunning comeback to beat the Orlando Magic 93-79 to level the first-round series at 3-3 and set up a decisive game seven.
Detroit trailed by as many as 24 points in game six, with the Magic leading 62-38 entering the third quarter as they appeared to be on the brink of their first playoff series victory since 2010.
But Orlando missed 23 consecutive field goals and the Pistons, who were down 3-1 in the series, took full advantage to force a seventh game.
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“Never say die, it’s simple,” said Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, who scored most in the game with 32 points.
“I mean, the grit of Detroit, that’s what we’ve been talking about all year.”
The final game of the series will be played Sunday in Detroit and the winner will face the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Toronto Raptors, whose first-round playoffs will also go to a deciding seventh game.
RJ Barrett hit a 3-pointer, which hit the rim and launched into the air before falling to the court, with 1.2 seconds left in overtime to give the Raptors a dramatic 112-110 victory in game six as they tied the series at 3-3.
The home team has won every game so far and the deciding game will be Sunday in Cleveland.