![](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/P06-260321-309.jpg\")
<\/p>\n PLAYOFFS-BOUND:
\n San Antonio knew that they could book a post-season berth with a win, but they trailed by 10 with less than 5 minutes to play before rallying <\/p>\n
Victor Wembanyama\u2019s game-winner on Thursday lifted the San Antonio Spurs to a 101-100 triumph over the Phoenix Suns and into the NBA playoffs, while the Los Angeles Lakers kept up their post-season push with an eighth straight victory.<\/p>\n
Luka Doncic scored 60 points and 41-year-old LeBron James hit another NBA milestone in style with a 19-point, 15-rebound, 10-assist triple-double in the Lakers\u2019 134-126 victory over the Miami Heat.<\/p>\n
The Lakers\u2019 surge has seen them climb from sixth to third in the Western Conference, where second-placed San Antonio have joined reigning champions the Oklahoma City Thunder with their first playoffs berth since 2019.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: AFP<\/p>\n
Knowing they could punch their playoffs ticket with a win, the Spurs trailed by 10 with 4 minutes, 50 seconds left to play.<\/p>\n
They were five behind with 1 minute, 1 second remaining when Wembanyama drained a pair of free throws and De\u2019Aaron Fox drove for a layup to cut the deficit to one with 26.6 seconds left.<\/p>\n
The Spurs bottled up Devin Booker to force the Suns to call a timeout and on the ensuing inbounds Wembanyama fouled rookie Rasheer Fleming, who missed both free throws.<\/p>\n
When Wembanyama\u2019s basket over Oso Ighodaro swished through the net the crowd at Frost Bank Center went wild.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t had a game like this in a while,\u201d said Wembanyama, who led all scorers with 34 points and added 12 rebounds. \u201cFeels good to know we\u2019ve still got it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old French star was trying to take a measured approach now that his first trip to the playoffs is assured.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course the first instinct is to be proud of it and to love it because we\u2019re part of it, but the key for me is to try to not care because we want to attack 82 games,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m scared to become complacent.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Miami, James tied Robert Parish\u2019s record, set in 1997, for most NBA regular-season games played with his 1,611th \u2014 a mark he can surpass with the Lakers today to play the Orlando Magic, who on Thursday lost 130-111 against the Charlotte Hornets.<\/p>\n
James and Doncic were listed as \u201cquestionable\u201d on the Lakers\u2019 early injury report after the team arrived in Miami at 4am in the wake of their win against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was tired,\u201d said Doncic, who scored 20 points in the fourth quarter as the Lakers cemented victory, having taken their first lead in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
NBA scoring leader Doncic connected on 18 of 30 shots, including nine three-pointers, on the way to his second 50-plus point game of the season. He scored 51 in a win last month over the Chicago Bulls, who on Thursday lost 115-110 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n
James, coming off a stellar 13-of-14 shooting display in Houston, Texas, made his first seven shots from the field and did not miss one until the final period.<\/p>\n
\u201cAvailability, I\u2019ve always wanted to be available to my teammates,\u201d James said. \u201cIt\u2019s a mental toll, trying to play a lot and being out there… I just give a lot of praise to the man above and [it\u2019s about] just loving the game and appreciating the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
His latest masterpiece was in the city where he won the first two of his four NBA titles and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was full of praise.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not only competing against the entire league, but also Father Time,\u201d Spoelstra said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s giving Father Time hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way he\u2019s playing, it\u2019s incredible to watch,\u201d Doncic said.<\/p>\n
Playing an unprecedented 23rd season, James already holds a host of NBA records, including points scored, field goals made and field goals attempted.<\/p>\n
Jalen Duren scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to propel the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons to a 117-95 victory over the Washington Wizards.<\/p>\n
The Pistons won their first game since learning that star Cade Cunningham would miss at least two weeks with a collapsed lung.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, the Utah Jazz trounced the Milwaukee Bucks 128-96, the New Orleans Pelicans downed the LA Clippers 105-99 and the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Sacramento Kings 139-118.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PLAYOFFS-BOUND: San Antonio knew that they could book a post-season berth with a win, but they trailed by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,6,11,3974,3973],"class_list":{"0":"post-669421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-playoffs","11":"tag-the-taipei-times","12":"tag-3973"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116263485357207150","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}