Lakers put Rockets on brink

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — The Los Angeles Lakers, fueled by 29 points from LeBron James, beat the Houston Rockets 112-108 in an overtime thriller on Friday to take a 3-0 stranglehold in their National Basketball Association (NBA) playoff series.

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.

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.

No NBA team has come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series.

“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.

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.

With Doncic and Reaves absent, James said, the Lakers “don’t have the luxury of being passive or being complacent.

“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.”

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

They rallied from an early 15-point deficit and led by six with less than 30 seconds left in regulation.

But a Houston turnover was followed by a foul on Marcus Smart as he attempted a three-pointer.

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

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.

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.