SIXERS ADVANCE
LOS ANGELES (AFP) -- Devin Booker scored 30 points as the Phoenix Suns left LeBron James and the depleted Los Angeles Lakers facing elimination from the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs on Tuesday with a crushing 11585 victory.
Phoenix took full advantage of the injury absence of the Lakers’ Anthony Davis to dominate the defending NBA champions from early in the first quarter before romping to a comfortable win.
The Suns victory leaves Phoenix
3-2 ahead in the best-of-seven Western
Conference first round series, meaning the Lakers must win in Los Angeles in
Game 6 on Thursday to keep their season alive.
Even with a win on Thursday, the Lakers would face a trip back to Arizona for a decisive Game 7, an assignment that looks even more daunting after Tuesday’s blowout loss.
“I feel like every game in this series, the next game is the biggest game,” Booker said afterwards.
“I think this was a real pivotal game for us. We wanted to protect home court and we came in here and showed that.”
The Lakers took a 10-5 lead early in the first quarter, but trailed for the remainder of the contest, with Phoenix turning the screw with a dominant 21-2 run to start the second quarter.
Phoenix led by 36 points in the third and a disconsolate James left the court well before the end of a grim night for the Lakers.
James led the Los Angeles scoring with 24 points with Kyle Kuzma adding 15 from the bench. No other Lakers player made double figures. “We got our ass kicked -- it’s that simple,” James said afterwards. “We’ve got to be better if we want to force a Game 7.”
“A lot to cover and see what we can do better in Game 6, but they pretty much just kicked our ass, there’s nothing else really to say.”
Elsewhere Tuesday, Damian Lillard produced a record-breaking 55-point display but it was not enough to prevent the Portland Trail Blazers from slipping to a 147-140 double overtime defeat to the Denver Nuggets.
Blazers’ talisman Lillard once again lived up to his reputation as a supreme clutch competitor, single-handedly keeping the Blazers alive with a string of crucial three-pointers.
The Game 5 defeat leaves Denver 3-2 ahead in the best-of-seven playoff series.
Lillard’s final points tally included 12 threes, a record for the NBA playoffs and only two behind the all-time record of 14 in a game held by Klay Thompson.
The 30-year-old Portland star forced overtime with just 3.7 seconds remaining, draining a 27-footer to make it 121-121.
Lillard struck again at the end of overtime with a 26-foot three-pointer to make it 135-135.
His final points of the night came with a 30-foot three-pointer that put Portland 140-138 ahead in double overtime, but a costly late blunder by C.J. McCollum -- stepping out of bounds -- allowed Denver to snatch victory.
Lillard declined to dwell on his dazzling performance following Portland’s loss. “It doesn’t matter, we lost the game,” Lillard said.
“At this point all that matters is that we can’t lose another game in this series.”