The Portland Path Blazers exploited an harm to Victor Wembanyama to attain an upset 106-103 victory over the second-seeded San Antonio Spurs of their NBA Western Convention playoff collection on Tuesday.
San Antonio famous person Wembanyama — who had scored 35 factors in his facet’s recreation one win on Sunday — exited within the second quarter on the Frost Financial institution Centre in Texas after hitting his head on the court docket flooring following a collision with Portland’s Jrue Vacation.
The 22-year-old seemed groggy as he lay on the ground for a number of minutes earlier than attending to his ft and jogging to the locker room.
The 7ft 4in (2.24m) ahead was subsequently dominated out of the rest of the sport after getting into the concussion protocol.
San Antonio seemed to have overcome Wembanyama’s harm as they pulled right into a 14-point lead early within the fourth quarter, main 93-79 with simply over eight minutes left on the clock.
However with victory seemingly in sight, San Antonio’s capturing went ice chilly and the absence of newly topped NBA defensive participant of the 12 months Wembanyama was keenly felt as a decided Portland snaffled victory, closing the fourth quarter with a 27-10 run.
Scoot Henderson led Portland’s scoring with 31 factors, whereas Vacation added 16.
“Basketball is a recreation of runs, and the basketball gods are at all times gonna repay those that play the sport proper,” Henderson instructed NBC tv afterwards.
Recreation three of the best-of-seven collection takes place in Portland on Friday.
LeBron sparks Lakers
Elsewhere Tuesday, the depleted Los Angeles Lakers produced one other disciplined defensive effort to defeat the Houston Rockets 101-94 and take a shock 2-0 lead of their Western Convention first-round collection.
With Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves injured within the last weeks of the common season, many had all however written off the Lakers’ possibilities of mounting a critical problem within the playoffs.
However LeBron James, Marcus Sensible and Luke Kennard mixed fantastically to hold the Lakers to a second straight win over the Kevin Durant-led Rockets.
James completed with 28 factors, whereas Sensible added 25 and Kennard 23 to offer the Lakers hope of advancing because the collection heads to Houston for recreation three on Friday.
“As arduous as we performed in recreation one, we knew we needed to double that in recreation two,” James mentioned.
“They had been going to return in with desperation, so we needed to be much more determined. I believed we performed a hell of a recreation.
“Our personal mindset now’s targeted on recreation three,” the 41-year-old NBA icon added.
“We all know we’re going right into a hostile setting. Guys are likely to play higher at dwelling than they do on the street, so we have now to be prepared for that.”
Sixers bounce again
Within the Japanese Convention playoffs, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe mixed for 59 factors because the Philadelphia 76ers scored a series-levelling 111-97 victory on the street over the Boston Celtics.
Edgecombe made six of 10 three-point makes an attempt earlier than ending with 30 factors, 10 rebounds, and two assists in a shocking victory for the Sixers, who had trailed 26-13 early within the first quarter earlier than rallying.
Maxey was additionally deadly from long-range, making 5 three-pointers on his solution to a 29-point haul.
The bounce-back victory got here after the Sixers had been thrashed 123-91 in recreation one on Sunday, after a efficiency that Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse lambasted as “completely unacceptable.”
Nurse was unsurprisingly happier together with his group’s successful show on Tuesday.
“I believed we simply performed significantly better group defence tonight,” mentioned Nurse, who additionally saluted his group’s resolve after Boston surged into an early double-digit lead.
“I feel we did a fantastic job of simply taking that punch,” Nurse mentioned.
Jaylen Brown led Boston’s scoring with 36 factors, however Jayson Tatum was the one different Celtics participant to make double figures with 19 factors. The Celtics made simply 35-of-89 photographs from the sector all through the sport.
Recreation three takes place in Philadelphia on Friday.
Printed on Apr 22, 2026