An unstoppable LeBron James leads the Lakers against the Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals

When Luka Doncic got injured in early April, many wrote off the Los Angeles Lakers who now assert their collective potential in the playoffs. With a magnificent reaction led by an indefatigable LeBron James, the Angelenos defeated the Houston Rockets 78-98, who were hampered by the absence of Kevin Durant, and confirmed on the road, in the sixth game of the first-round series (4-2), their qualification for the Western Conference semifinals, where the champions Oklahoma City Thunder await.

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At 41 years old, LeBron led the group with 28 points, seven rebounds, and eight assists, seemingly immune to the passage of time. The Akron star highlighted the role of his teammates, from the consistency in direction by Marcus Smart to the dominance under the hoops by Deandre Ayton, and the shooting of Rui Hachimura who complemented him with 21 points last night. Pulling together was enough for the Lakers against a Rockets team that appeared too soft and couldn’t find a way to come back from the unexpected 3-0 deficit in the series, a hole no one has ever overcome in 80 years of NBA history.

“Winning this series is very important for us after being written off a few weeks ago,” highlighted JJ Redick, L.A.’s coach. The defense allowed the Lakers to overcome the challenge posed by Houston, holding them under 100 points in three of the four wins. In the last two months, the group has accumulated 23 wins and six losses and has managed to recover from the loss of their Slovenian star, the top scorer of the competition (33.5 points per game) and driver of their excellent end of the season. With a delicate hamstring muscle injury, Doncic’s possible return against the Thunder is still uncertain.

The series win is the first for the Lakers since 2023, when they fell to the Denver Nuggets at the doorstep of the NBA Finals. The Angelenos can also smile at the good return of Austin Reaves after three weeks out. The team’s second-highest scorer reappeared with 22 and 15 points in the fifth and sixth games of the series, and will arrive more physically sharp for the demanding clash with the champions, undefeated against Phoenix in the first round.

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For the Rockets, led by Amen Thompson (18 points) and Alperen Sengun (17), this is the second consecutive first-round setback after falling to the Golden State Warriors in seven games last year. “We are all very disappointed, it was not what we expected, neither today nor in the series overall. Our conviction was to force a seventh game,” lamented Ime Udoka, the Texans’ coach. There will be seventh games in three series, all in the East, the highest number since 2014, when there were five.

Last night, the Detroit Pistons overcame a 24-point deficit in the third quarter to defeat the Orlando Magic 79-93 in Florida and force the decisive game in front of their home crowd. Cade Cunningham was the visiting hero with 32 points and 10 rebounds. On the other hand, the Toronto Raptors were able to please their arena with a spectacular and dramatic game-winning three-pointer by RJ Barrett with 1.2 seconds left in overtime. The Canadians won 112-110 over the Cleveland Cavaliers and will travel to Ohio to play it all or nothing, encouraged by Scottie Barnes’ 25 points and 14 assists.

The third matchup will be played early next morning between the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers at the TD Garden (1:30 a.m., League Pass), where Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum hope to confirm the theoretical favoritism in a series that the Sixers of Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, and Joel Embiid have taken much further than anyone expected after being down 3-1 in the same.

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