Pau Gasol had 23 points, 17 rebounds and six assists, Metta World Peace scored 15 points in his return from a seven-game suspension, and the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the Denver Nuggets for a thrilling 96-87 victory in Game 7 last night in Los Angeles to win their first-round series.
Steve Blake scored a playoff career-high 19 points and Kobe Bryant had 17 points and eight assists for the Lakers, who blew a 16-point lead in the second half before surviving a finale with wild momentum swings and furious physical play. With Gasol leading an emotional effort, the Lakers narrowly avoided becoming the ninth team in NBA history to blow a 3-1 series lead.
Andrew Bynum had 16 points and a career playoff-high 18 rebounds for Los Angeles, which will open the second round Monday night in Oklahoma City against the second-seeded Thunder.
Ty Lawson and Al Harrington scored 24 points apiece for the sixth-seeded Nuggets, who committed 19 turnovers and managed just 7-of-27 shooting in the fourth quarter. Arron Afflalo scored 15 points in just the third Game 7 in franchise history for the Nuggets, who have lost in the first round in eight of the last nine postseasons — but never with this much excitement.
Celtics 92, 76ers 91
Rajon Rondo has made dozens of last-second dashes to the basket.
This time, he went in the opposite direction.
The Celtics point guard ran into the backcourt, grabbing the inbounds pass in stride, avoiding a foul and dribbling out the final 3.4 seconds to clinch a victory over the 76ers in Boston in the opener of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
“I feel like I could out-quick him. That’s what I did,” Rondo said. “We knew they had a foul to give. I told Doc [Rivers] to get me the ball and I could use my speed.”
Rondo had 17 assists, 13 points and 12 rebounds for his eighth career playoff triple-double. He had six points, five assists and four rebounds in the fourth quarter, when the Celtics went on a 23-7 run to turn a double-digit deficit into a six-point lead.
Kevin Garnett scored 29 points — his most in this regular season or postseason — and added 11 rebounds to help the Celtics maintain home-court advantage in the best-of-seven, second-round series. Game 2 is tomorrow night in Bostonbefore the series shifts to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4.
Andre Iguodala scored 19 points and Evan Turner had 16 with 10 rebounds for the Sixers.