\n<\/p>\n
Published on 25 April 2026<\/span>25 April 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n LeBron James scored 29 points as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets 112-108 in an overtime thriller to take a 3-0 lead in the NBA playoff series.<\/p>\n James, the 41-year-old superstar playing in his 19th postseason, came up with a steal and a game-tying three-pointer with 13.6 seconds remaining in regulation on Friday.<\/p>\n 4 item list<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n He couldn’t get a potential game-winner at the buzzer, but added a steal and a block in frantic overtime as the Lakers pushed the Rockets to the brink of elimination in the best-of-seven Western Conference series.<\/p>\n No NBA team has come back from going 0-3 down to win a playoff series.<\/p>\n “Just trying to take advantage of the opportunity,” James, who had 13 rebounds, six assists and three steals, told broadcaster Prime. \u201cMy guys trust me to try to make plays and I’m fortunate to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lakers will have a chance to wrap up the series on Sunday in Houston. With league leading scorer Luka Doncic out with a hamstring strain and key offensive contributor Austin Reaves out with an oblique injury, many weren’t expecting him to be in such a good situation.<\/p>\n The young Rockets, with veteran star Kevin Durant sidelined with an ankle sprain, were led by Alpern Sengun’s 33 points and 16 rebounds.<\/p>\n They overcame an early 15-point deficit and led by six points with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation.<\/p>\n But his mistakes overtook him. After a Houston turnover, a foul was called on Marcus Smart as he attempted a three-pointer.<\/p>\n Smart made all three free throws to cut the Lakers’ deficit to 101\u201398 and set the stage for James’ game-tying basket.<\/p>\n Sengun missed a potential go-ahead basket before James hit a shot from beyond the arc and they went into overtime, with Smart scoring eight of his 21 points in the extra session as the Lakers pulled away.<\/p>\n Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown each scored 25 points apiece to lead the Celtics to a tough 108-100 win over the 76ers in Philadelphia to take a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference series.<\/p>\n The Sixers tied the series at one game each by winning the second game in Boston.<\/p>\n In a game in which neither team led by more than 10 points, the Celtics took a five-point lead in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n Tyrese Maxey’s three-pointer put the Sixers ahead 85\u201384 with 8:42 remaining, and Philadelphia was within one when Tatum drilled a three-pointer that cut Boston’s lead to 100\u201396 with 1:57 left to play.<\/p>\n Peyton Pritchard added another three-pointer with the shot-clock winding down before Tatum \u2014 who missed most of the season after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in last year’s playoffs \u2014 drained a dagger trey that sealed it for Boston.<\/p>\n “We were just being flexible,” Tatum told broadcaster Prime. “We stuck to it. It’s a game of runs – good teams and fair play, you’ve got to respond.”<\/p>\n Maxi scored 31 points to lead the Sixers. Paul George scored 18 and rookie VJ Edgecombe added 10 points and 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n Sixers star Joel Embiid, who was still recovering from an emergency appendectomy earlier this month, was carted off shortly before the game.<\/p>\n “He’s not ready yet,” said Sixers coach Nick Nurse, whose team will try to even the series when it hosts Game 4 on Sunday.<\/p>\n Stephen Cassel had 33 points and the San Antonio Spurs overcame the absence of Victor Wembanyama to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 120-108 on Friday night to take a 2-1 series lead.<\/p>\n Dylan Harper added 27 points and 10 rebounds for the Spurs, who trailed by 15 points in the third quarter. Game four of the first-round series will take place on Sunday at the Moda Centre.<\/p>\n Before the game, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson announced that Wembanyama would not play while he recovered from an injury suffered in Game 2 on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n Jrue Holiday had 29 points for the Trail Blazers, who were making their first home playoff appearance since 2021, but ultimately couldn’t take advantage of Wembanyama’s absence.<\/p>\n Portland took an 82\u201367 lead into the third quarter, but the Spurs came back with a 21\u20135 run to take an 88\u201387 lead in the final period. Cassel’s step-back jumper and a pair of free throws gave the Spurs a 105\u201395 lead midway through the fourth and the Trail Blazers collapsed.<\/p>\n Wembanyama \u2013 the league’s first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year and one of three finalists for the Most Valuable Player award \u2013 went down in the second quarter of the Spurs’ 106\u2013103 Game 2 loss in San Antonio.<\/p>\n Johnson did not elaborate on Wembanyama’s condition, saying only that he was making progress. He averaged 25 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists and a league-best 3.1 blocks per game this season. His status for Sunday’s game was not known.<\/p>\n Luke Kornet started against the Trail Blazers while Wembanyama watched from the bench, finishing with 14 points and 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n Portland went on a 15-2 run in the first half to go up 50-43 and lead 65-59 at the break after Jerami Grant’s 3-pointer.<\/p>\n In the final moments of the half, Fox suffered an offensive foul when he elbowed Deni Avdija in the face while driving to the basket. Johnson challenged the call and it was changed to a defensive foul on Avdija, who broke a tooth but continued playing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Published on 25 April 202625 April 2026 LeBron James scored 29 points as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets 112-108 in an overtime thriller to take a 3-0 lead in the NBA playoff series. James, the 41-year-old superstar playing in his 19th postseason, came up with a steal and a game-tying three-pointer with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[4002,3486,9335,3999,2513,615,8414,4000,2961,25405],"class_list":{"0":"post-96744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-news","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-beat","10":"tag-celtics","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lead","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-overtime","15":"tag-rockets","16":"tag-series","17":"tag-sixers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96753,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96744\/revisions\/96753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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