NBA play-in tournament: LeBron’s 30 lift Lakers to No 7 seed as Hawks prevail
LeBron James had 30 points and 10 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers claimed the seventh spot in the Western Conference playoffs with a grueling 108-102 overtime victory over the short-handed Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA’s play-in tournament Tuesday night.
Dennis Schröder scored 21 points and iced the win with two free throws with 8.4 seconds left for the Lakers, who will face second-seeded Memphis in the first round starting Sunday.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 24 points and Mike Conley hit three free throws with 0.1 seconds left in regulation to tie it for the Wolves, who will host New Orleans or Oklahoma City on Friday for the eighth spot and a firstround date with top-seeded Denver beginning Sunday.
The Pelicans host the Thunder on Wednesday night, and Minnesota must then beat the winner to reach the playoffs for only the third time in 19 seasons.
Anthony Davis had 24 points, 15 rebounds and one tremendously illadvised foul on Conley, who scored 23 points. Los Angeles still survived its back-and-forth meeting with Minnesota, which gave an inspired effort for the first three quarters while playing without starters Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels.
Gobert is suspended for punching teammate Kyle Anderson during Minnesota’s regular-season finale against New Orleans, while McDaniels is out indefinitely with a broken hand after punching a wall in frustration Sunday.
Los Angeles finally won it with defense, holding the Wolves to seven points in the final 11 minutes from midway through the fourth quarter while the Lakers rallied from a 15-point deficit in the second half. After leading for most of the night, Minnesota went scoreless for six full minutes.
Schröder drilled a tiebreaking threepointer with 1.4 seconds to play in regulation, but the Wolves forced overtime when Conley hit his free throws after Davis stepped on his foot after he had already released a three-point attempt.
Los Angeles took the lead for good on a three-pointer on the opening possession of overtime by Rui Hachimura, who had 12 points. The Wolves missed 11 consecutive shots before Anthony Edwards’ dunk with 2:36 left in overtime.
Edwards scored just nine points – more than 15 below his average – and left the court briefly in the second half to get tape on his left shoulder.
D’Angelo Russell had a nightmare game for Los Angeles against the team that traded him in February, scoring two points on 1-of-9 shooting with eight assists. He was benched down the stretch in favor of Schröder, who came through tremendously.
The game was the Lakers’ first nonregular-season contest played in front of a full home crowd since James joined the franchise five seasons ago. Los Angeles spent the 2020 championship run in the Florida bubble, played in front of a half-full arena in its first-round loss to Phoenix in 2021, and missed the playoffs entirely in 2018 and 2022.
The Lakers hadn’t had a full crowd for non-regular season game since April 2013, back when their arena was still Staples Center.
Minnesota coach Chris Finch said he had spent the past two days “sorting through the wreckage, if you will,” of the Wolves’ eventful season finale, which left his team without its best rim protector and its top point-of-attack defender on James in the clubs’ recent matchups.
But Minnesota looked better than the Lakers from the start, jumping to a big early lead before making a 14-2 run to close the second quarter for a 60-49 halftime lead. The Wolves’ lead finally dwindled after Towns left the game with five fouls early in the fourth quarter.
Atlanta Hawks 116-105 Miami Heat
Trae Young scored 25 points, Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds and the Atlanta Hawks grabbed the No 7 in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Miami Heat 116-105 in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.
Dejounte Murray added 18 points for the Hawks, who avenged a fivegame round one loss to Miami last season and earned an East first-round matchup with Boston that will start Saturday.
Kyle Lowry scored 33 points – his highest-scoring game in his two Miami seasons – for the Heat, who will host either Toronto or Chicago on Friday to decide the No 8 seed and a spot against top overall seed Milwaukee in round one. The Raptors and Bulls play Wednesday; the winner of Friday’s game opens the series against the Bucks on Sunday.
Tyler Herro scored 26 for Miami, and Jimmy Butler finished with 21.
For the Hawks, four reserves – Saddiq Bey, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Onyeka Okongwu and Jalen Johnson – combined for 53 points.
The Hawks improved to 3-0 all-time in play-in tournament games; that’s the best mark in the league, one that New Orleans can match when it plays host to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
And they earned this one on the boards. Atlanta outrebounded Miami 63-39, including 22-6 on the offensive glass that keyed a 26-6 edge in secondchance points.
The Hawks took two timeouts in the first 3:53 of the third quarter, as most of what was a 24-point lead with 2:37 left in the first half – 63-39 Atlanta was the margin – got whittled away, and fast.
Miami cut the margin to 15 by halftime, then opened the third quarter on a 16-6 run. Add it all up, and it was a 27-8 run in about 7 minutes of play to get the Heat within 71-66.
But the Hawks had an answer then, and every other time the Heat made a run. The Atlanta lead was 13 again going into the fourth, and when Miami was within six midway through the final quarter, the Hawks scored five straight to restore a double-digit edge.