Thunder bring Lakers back down to earth, Pistons snap losing streak to Cavs
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was held to a season-low 18 points, but the defending champs still had little trouble getting past a Lakers team with little offense beyond the ageless LeBron.
LeBron James
The Oklahoma City Thunder halted LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers’ strong run, defeating them 108-90 in Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference semifinals.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was held to a season-low 18 points, but even so, the defending champions had little trouble overcoming a Lakers with few offensive resources beyond the ageless LeBron.
At 41 years old, King James was the top scorer with 27 points, in a fabulous 71% effectiveness in field shots (12-17), accumulating also 4 rebounds and 6 assists.
LeBron was already the best player in the first round series against the Houston Rockets, which the Lakers won despite the absence of Luka Doncic due to a muscle injury.
The Slovenian, the NBA's leading scorer of the season with 33.5 points on average, again assisted from the bench to another thrashing by the Thunder, who already overwhelmed the Lakers in the four regular-season meetings by an unassailable average of 29.3 points.
Austin Reaves, the other leg of the Angelino star trio, continued to flounder in these playoffs with 8 points and a dreadful 3-16 shooting statistic from the field.
Promising start
But it didn't take long for the scales to tip in favor of the Thunder, top seed in the West and still undefeated in this postseason after sweeping the Phoenix Suns in the first playoffs.
On a lackluster night from Gilgeous-Alexander, center Chet Holmgren was the offensive mainstay this time with 24 points and 12 rebounds as the home defense held the Lakers to their lowest scoring output in a playoff game since 2021.
Detroit strikes first
In Tuesday's other game, the Detroit Pistons ended a streak of 12 straight playoff losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers by defeating them 111-101 in the opener of this Eastern semifinal.
The home team's stout defense got the better of the Cavaliers offensive talent, causing James Harden and Donovan Mitchell to commit 10 turnovers between them.
Harden finished with 22 points and Mitchell with another 23 but the game was back in the hands of Cade Cunningham, leader of the Pistons, with 23 points and 7 assists.
The point guard was seconded by Tobias Harris, with 20 points and 8 rebounds, and Jalen Duren, who had 11 and 12 and starred in decisive actions down the stretch.
Fueled by the energy of its home crowd, Detroit looked more physically recovered from the effort of the first round in which it needed to come back from a 3-1 aggregate deficit against the Orlando Magic.
The home side dominated much of the game, with distances as large as 18 points and a 93-82 lead with nine minutes left.
But Harden woke up with nine straight points for the Cavaliers to tie the score. Then Duren put a monumental block on the veteran point guard and converted three dunks to give the Pistons the final push.
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