LOS ANGELES —
Devin Booker scored 30 points as the Phoenix Suns left LeBron James and the
depleted
Los Angeles Lakers facing elimination from the NBA playoffs on Tuesday
with a crushing 115-85 victory.
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Phoenix took full
advantage of the injury absence of the Lakers’ Anthony Davis to dominate the
defending
NBA champions from early in the first quarter before romping to a
comfortable win.
The Suns victory
leaves Phoenix 3-2 ahead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first round
series, meaning the Lakers must win in Los Angeles in game six on Thursday to
keep their season alive.
Even with a win on
Thursday, the Lakers would face a trip back to Arizona for a decisive game
seven, an assignment that looks even more daunting after Tuesday’s blowout
loss.
“I feel like every
game in this series, the next game is the biggest game,” Booker said
afterwards.
“I think this was a
real pivotal game for us. We wanted to protect home court and we came in here
and showed that.”
The Lakers took a 10-5
lead early in the first quarter, but trailed for the remainder of the contest,
with Phoenix turning the screw with a dominant 21-2 run to start the second
quarter.
Phoenix led by 36
points in the third and a disconsolate James left the court well before the end
of a grim night for the Lakers.
James led the Los
Angeles scoring with 24 points, with Kyle Kuzma adding 15 from the bench. No
other Lakers player made double figures.
“We got our a** kicked
— it’s that simple,” James said afterwards.
“We’ve got to be
better if we want to force a game seven.
“A lot to cover and
see what we can do better in game six, but they pretty much just kicked our
a**, there’s nothing else really to say.”
Lillard gem in vain
Elsewhere Tuesday,
Damian Lillard produced a record-breaking 55-point display but it was not
enough to prevent the Portland Trail Blazers from slipping to a 147-140 double
overtime defeat to the Denver Nuggets.
Blazers talisman
Lillard once again lived up to his reputation as a supreme clutch competitor,
single-handedly keeping the Blazers alive with a string of crucial
three-pointers.
The game five defeat
leaves Denver 3-2 ahead in the best-of-seven playoff series.
Lillard’s final points
tally included 12 threes, a record for the NBA playoffs and only two behind the
all-time record of 14 in a game held by Klay Thompson.
The 30-year-old
Portland star forced overtime with just 3.7 seconds remaining, draining a
27-footer to make it 121-121.
Lillard struck again
at the end of overtime with a 26-foot three-pointer to make it 135-135.
His final points of
the night came with a 30-foot three-pointer that put Portland 140-138 ahead in
double overtime, but a costly late blunder by C.J. McCollum — stepping out of
bounds — allowed Denver to snatch victory.
Lillard declined to
dwell on his dazzling performance following Portland’s loss.
“It don’t matter, we
lost the game,” Lillard said. “At this point all that matters is that we can’t
lose another game in this series.”
Nets advance
Nikola Jokic led the
Nuggets scorers with 38 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists, while Monte
Morris added 28 points. Michael Porter Jr. finished with 26 points.
In Tuesday’s other
game, James Harden scored a 34-point triple-double as the Brooklyn Nets
advanced to a series against the Milwaukee Bucks with a 123-109 win over the
Boston Celtics.
An impressive showing
from Brooklyn’s “Big Three” saw Harden add 10 rebounds and 10 assists while
Kyrie Irving (25 points) and Kevin Durant (24 points) also weighed in with big
contributions as the Nets completed a 4-1 victory in the best-of-seven series.
“We’ve dealt with so
much adversity through the regular season, it felt good to get some meaningful
games in,” Harden said. “It’s time to lock in now.”
“They’re a tough
Boston team. They were down a few players. But they kept fighting and fighting
and made it tough for us.
“We’re a special
group, especially when we lock in defensively. If we can get three or four
stops in a row — we can get it going offensively because we’ve got that much
firepower.”
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