Ajay Mitchell scored 24 points and handed out 10 assists without a turnover to help the Thunder take a 3-0 stranglehold on the best-of-seven Western Conference semi-final series.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The Lakers will host game four on Tuesday trying to become the first NBA team to rally from 3-0 down to win a playoff series.<\/p>\n
The Cleveland Cavaliers, fueled by 35 points from Donovan Mitchell and clutch shooting from James Harden, avoided falling in a similar hole, grabbing a crucial 116-109 game-three victory over the Detroit Pistons to cut their series deficit to 2-1.<\/p>\n
The Cavs, who dropped the first two games in Detroit, remained unbeaten at home in these playoffs.<\/p>\n
But the Lakers, still without injured scoring champion Luka Doncic, couldn\u2019t conjure a crucial win as their series shifted to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Rui Hachimura led the Lakers with 21 points and James added 19 points, six rebounds and eight assists.<\/p>\n
But the Thunder\u2019s depth was just too much for the depleted Lakers. <\/p>\n
With reigning Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander connecting on just seven of 20 shots from the floor, second-year guard Mitchell — starting in place of injured Jalen Williams — stepped up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a gamer,\u201d said Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 23 points. \u201cIt might be a shock to the world, but this is no shock to us.\u201d <\/p>\n
As in game two, the Lakers took a two-point lead into half-time, this one largely on the strength of 11 first-half three-pointers.<\/p>\n
But again the Thunder exploded in the third period, opening the second half on a 21-6 scoring run.<\/p>\n
After that it was all but over. The Lakers connected on just eight of 22 shots from the field in the third period, including just one from three-point range. Their turnovers began to mount, and the Thunder pushed their lead to as many as 27 in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
NBA Wrap: LeBron breaks Playoff record | 01:51<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander said the Thunder, who swept the Phoenix Suns in the first round, will \u201cabsolutely\u201d be aiming to finish off the Lakers on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would never want to waste an opportunity to win a basketball game,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to do the same thing we did in the first three games — be the aggressor, play the right way together.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Cleveland, Donovan Mitchell added 10 rebounds and four assists. Harden, a three-time NBA scoring champion, scored nine of his 19 points in a tight fourth quarter, drilling a trio of baskets that included a dagger trey that pushed Cleveland\u2019s lead to four with 25.9 seconds left.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d Harden said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen your number\u2019s called, just getting to my spots. And it\u2019s something that I work on literally every day.\u201d <\/p>\n
Harden\u2019s lackluster offensive numbers and late-game miscues in games one and two sparked criticism, but the veteran said he\u2019d taken the \u201cchatter\u201d in stride.<\/p>\n
\u201cChatter is going to be chatter regardless,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you do something good, whether you do something bad, you give me opportunities in this fourth quarter, and I take advantage of them.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Cavs withstood a 27-point triple-double from Detroit\u2019s Cade Cunningham, who added 10 rebounds and 10 assists.<\/p>\n
Cleveland led 64-48 at half-time and pushed the lead to 17 early in the third before the Pistons clawed back.<\/p>\n
Detroit managed to edge ahead with less than four minutes to play before Cleveland responded again.<\/p>\n
They will try to get the series back on level terms when they host game four on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oklahoma City Thunder used another explosive second half to beat LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-661457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}