{"id":717578,"date":"2026-04-25T07:10:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T07:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717578\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T07:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T07:10:31","slug":"nba-play-offs-lebron-james-shines-for-los-angeles-lakers-while-victor-wembanyama-concussed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717578\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA play-offs: LeBron James shines for Los Angeles Lakers while Victor Wembanyama concussed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">LeBron James shone as the Los Angeles Lakers took charge of their NBA play-off series while Victor Wembanyama was concussed during a San Antonio defeat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Lakers were without leading scorers Luka Doncic (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique), but 41-year-old James continued to show his class.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 22-time All Star claimed 28 points, eight rebounds and seven assists to lead the Lakers to a 101-94 win over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fellow veteran Kevin Durant returned for Houston after missing the opening game of the series and scored a team-high 23 points but turned the ball over nine times and claimed just three points after half-time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Lakers now lead 2-0 in the first round of the post-season, with the Rockets hosting the next two games in the best-of-seven series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We understood what they wanted to come in [with], the desperation they were going to have, so we had to be even more desperate,&#8221; said four-time NBA champion James. &#8220;I thought we played a hell of a game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Wembanyama had scored five points for the San Antonio Spurs when he was injured midway through the second quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 7ft 4in France international, who has been named <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/basketball\/articles\/ce3drn7rwv6o\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">this season&#8217;s defensive player of the year,<\/a> hit his face on the floor after being knocked off his feet during a drive to the basket.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Spurs said he had entered the concussion protocol and would not return to the game. They confirmed after Portland&#8217;s 106-103 win that he had sustained a concussion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James shone as the Los Angeles Lakers took charge of their NBA play-off series while Victor Wembanyama&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717579,"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-717578","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\/116464099270872380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717578","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=717578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}