{"id":717554,"date":"2026-04-25T06:27:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717554\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T06:27:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:27:39","slug":"lakers-ot-win-puts-rockets-on-brink-of-nba-playoff-elimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717554\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers’ OT win puts Rockets on brink of NBA playoff elimination"},"content":{"rendered":"

James, the 41-year-old superstar playing in his 19th post-season, came up with a steal and a game-tying three-pointer with 13.6 seconds left in regulation.<\/p>\n

He couldn’t get a potential game-winner to drop at the buzzer, but added a steal and a block in a 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 an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series.<\/p>\n

“It was just a gutty win for us,” said James, who added 13 rebounds, six assists and three steals and wasn’t the only player gasping by the end of overtime.<\/p>\n

The Lakers will have a chance to close out the series in Houston on Sunday, a position many doubted they would be in with league-leading scorer Luka Doncic and teammate Austin Reaves sidelined by injury.<\/p>\n

With Doncic and Reaves absent, James said, the Lakers “don’t have the luxury of being passive or being complacent.<\/p>\n

“Our whole mindset is we have to do everything it takes in that particular game, in that particular moment, in that particular possession… because we don’t have a lot of room for error.”<\/p>\n

The young Rockets, with veteran star Kevin Durant out with a sprained ankle, were led by Alperen Sengun’s 33 points and 16 rebounds.<\/p>\n

They rallied from an early 15-point deficit and led by six with less than 30 seconds left in regulation.<\/p>\n

But a Houston turnover was followed by a foul on Marcus Smart as he attempted a three-pointer.<\/p>\n

Smart made all three free-throws to cut the Lakers’ deficit to 101-98 and set the stage for James’s game-tying basket.<\/p>\n

Sengun missed a potential go-ahead basket before James was off-target from beyond the arc and they went to overtime, Smart scoring eight of his 21 points in the extra session.<\/p>\n

No Wemby, no problem<\/p>\n

\"Stephon<\/p>\n

Stephon Castle of the San Antonio Spurs attempts a layup in the Spurs’ victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in game three of their NBA playoff series \u00a9 Soobum Im \/ GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA\/AFP <\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the West, the San Antonio Spurs erased a 15-point third-quarter deficit and swept to a 120-108 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, despite missing star Victor Wembanyama as he recovers from a concussion.<\/p>\n

Stephon Castle’s 33 points included 11 in the fourth quarter and rookie Dylan Harper added 27 points and 10 rebounds off the bench as the Spurs roared home to take a 2-1 series lead.<\/p>\n

They had dropped game two at home after Wembanyama was injured in a hard fall.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old French star cheered from the bench as his teammates turned the tide in Portland, where they will try to build on their series lead on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Resilient Celtics<\/p>\n

In Philadelphia, Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown scored 25 points apiece to lead the Celtics to a 108-100 victory over the 76ers and a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference series.<\/p>\n

\"Jayson<\/p>\n

Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics drives against Paul George in the Celtics’ victory over the Philadelphia 76ers in game three of their NBA playoff series \u00a9 Mitchell Leff \/ GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA\/AFP <\/p>\n

In a game that neither team led by more than 10 points, the Celtics were up by five going into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Tyrese Maxey’s three-pointer briefly put the Sixers up 85-84, and Philadelphia were within one when Tatum drilled a three-pointer that pushed Boston’s lead to 100-96 with 1:57 left to play.<\/p>\n

Payton Pritchard added another three-pointer with the shot-clock winding down before Tatum — who missed most of the season after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in last year’s playoffs — drained a dagger trey that sealed it for Boston.<\/p>\n

“We just were resilient,” Tatum told broadcaster Prime. “We stuck with it. It’s a game of runs… you’ve got to answer.”<\/p>\n

Maxey scored 31 points to lead the Sixers. Paul George added 18 and rookie VJ Edgecombe added 10 points and 10 rebounds for Philadelphia, who host game four on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James, the 41-year-old superstar playing in his 19th post-season, came up with a steal and a game-tying three-pointer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-717554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116463930318162434","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717554","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=717554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}