Los Angeles Lakers are the Western Conference Champions after enduring an hard-fought 117-107 win over Denver Nuggets to return to the NBA Finals for the first time in 10 years. Denver Nuggets made a valiant effort, but were unable to overcome a third straight 3-1 series deficit.
Los Angeles Lakers are the Western Conference Champions after enduring an hard-fought 117-107 win over Denver Nuggets to return to the NBA Finals for the first time in 10 years. Denver Nuggets made a valiant effort, but were unable to overcome a third straight 3-1 series deficit.
Lebron James sored nine points on the stretch to erase any hopes of Denver Nuggets turning this around, The Lakers guard, will now feature in his 10th NBA finals.
James was fired-up all night long, getting to the rim dunking consecutive points and to the free throw line to consistently get his team high-percentage baskets, and he absolutely took over down the stretch to send the Nuggets packing. His parter who is reaching his first ever NBA final Anthony Davis battled first-half foul trouble, but came up big in the second half as the Lakers thwarted Denver’s comeback bid.
Denver Nuggets failed to get into their top gear in the first half due to more foul trouble for Nikola Jokic and an injury to Jamal Murray which appeared to make him less than 100 percent. True to form, the Nuggets cut the Lakers’ 10-point halftime lead to just three to start the fourth quarter, but they were unable to reproduce the heroics that got them to this point.
Lebron James Spoke after the game
“my teammates say bring this home, it is my resposniblity to do right things and bring this home, we gonna enjoy it tonight, there is only two teams that can make to the final out of 30 teams competeting, we all know we still got bigger fish to fry.”
Dwight Howard had two key blocks for the Lakers level with Anthony Davis who also had two blocks and a steal, meanwhile the former New Orleans Pelicans players, feels happy to reach his first-ever NBA finals.about:blankREPORT THIS AD
“it feels good, we have done alot this year, we all know the job is not done, while we enjoy this we still got spme work to do, it is my job, that was why they brought me here, i took the responsibilty with Lebron, and all this guy are ready for the challenge.”
Lebron James scored his 27th career-triple double, as he scored 38 points 16 rebounds and 10 assist, while Anthony Davis registered 27 points for the Lakers. Meanhwile Jeremi Grant scored a team-high 20 points for the Nuggets, who crash out of the competition.
Jamal Murray says he was playing with a bone bruise in his right leg: “I was in pain but it’s cool…I was struggling a bit today.” Also said he has a big bruise on his foot that bothered him. He tried to change shoes but it didn’t help.
The Lakers now seek the franchise’s 17th NBA title, and will meet the Miami Heat.
The Morning Wrap shares the day’s top five stories from our reporters at the Southern California Newspaper Group. … Sign up to have our top sports stories delivered to your inbox with our daily newsletters 1. DOC RIVERS OUT AS HEAD COACH OF THE CLIPPERS Doc Rivers is out as Clippers coach Is a coaching…
Sunday night in East Hartford, Connecticut, Laryea earned two assists and scored TFC’s third goal to help lead The Reds to a 3-1 victory over Columbus Crew SC. This is Laryea’s first Player of the Week award. Earlier this season Laryea was named to the MLS Team of the Week for Week 2 during the MLS is Back Tournament. This season, Laryea has made 11 appearances and scored four goals with two assists for Toronto FC.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — As the Lakers advance Finals for the first time in a decade, a shadow awaits them. It’s the franchise that hung the first banners won by LeBron James; the franchise that was coached and built by an executive whose name is synonymous with the Showtime era; the franchise that landed…
Sign In Sunday was a tough day for Boston sports fans. First, the Red Sox wrapped up their 2020 season and missed the postseason for the second straight year. Then the Celtics were eliminated from the Eastern Conference finals after a 125-113 loss to the Miami Heat in Game 6. It certainly was a close…
“My message was simple: I really appreciated the way they played basketball,” Stevens said, as seen on NBC Sports Boston’s postgame coverage. “… I really appreciated the way that they blocked out stuff that didn’t matter. I appreciated the way they found joy, and stuck together. We had one dustup, pretty good for a calendar year.”
TORONTO FC – Quentin Westberg; Richie Laryea (Tony Gallacher 89’), Omar Gonzalez, Chris Mavinga, Justin Morrow; Jonathan Osorio (C), Marky Delgado, Pablo Piatti (Liam Fraser 89’), Alejandro Pozuelo (Jayden Nelson 89’); Ayo Akinola (Patrick Mullins 89’), Jozy Altidore (Nick DeLeon 83’)
Substitutes Not Used: Alex Bono, Laurent Ciman, Eriq Zavaleta, Erickson Gallardo
COLUMBUS CREW SC – Eloy Room; Harrison Afful (Chris Cadden 78’), Jonathan Mensah (C), Josh Williams, Hector Jimenez (Milton Valenzuela 57’); Sebastian Berhalter (Aidan Morris 62’), Artur, Luis Diaz (Derrick Etienne 62’), Lucas Zelarayan, Pedro Santos (Youness Mokhtar 78’); Gyasi Zardes
Substitutes Not Used: Andrew Tarbell, Aboubacar Keita, Emmanuel Boateng, Jordan Hamilton
GREG VANNEY – HEAD COACH, TORONTO FC
Given the fact that your team is essentially homeless right now playing in Hartford, you must feel pretty good about how the team is looking right now?
“Yeah, I was very pleased, obviously, as I’m sure everybody was just with the response form first half to second half. So that’s how our mindset needs to be always. The work was good, the reaction, the proactive work was good. It’s just where we need to be all the time. And then sometimes we just need that little kick in the butt we got it. Kudos to the guys, they stepped out and really took charge in the game and imposed themselves on the game and started to win duels and started to really take care of the ball. Our engagement level was high. We were proactive in what we were doing. And we took back control of the game. And when you take control of the game, it gives your special players who can do things more of an opportunity to do those special things. And those guys answered that call too. Very pleased with that. As we all know, times are not as easy, being away all the time. Every game is an away game, but we did our best tonight to try to make this feel like a home field and we will try to carry that each time that we come out, here just for our own mentality. As a group I think we are looking forward to just a quick break and a stop in (Toronto) and reset with our families. Then get back on the road and start another stretch and try to take some more points. But it’s a nice night to build off of. It’s a nice night to have when you’re going to go into a couple days of a little bit of rest.”
What did you say to your team at half?
“A lot of it was just emotionally, we were carrying our frustrations from one place to the next. If something happened, it was impacting people. And there was a lot of that going on. If there was a call that we didn’t like, it was impacting … and our reactions were leading into us getting disconnected, guys showing their emotion on the field, going from working together to maybe walking at the wrong times. And we weren’t a cohesive unit and a lot of it, I think, was just frustration for a lot of different reasons. So we just needed a reset and we needed to drop that and we needed to not be our own worst enemy on the field and we needed to move proactively and we needed to move proactively and to stay connected and be positive to get from one place to the next play. That was a big part of it to be honest and the guys took a deep breath. They came out and they reconnected and went after it. Obviously, we made some tactical adjustments in what we were doing. I think those obviously give us a good structure to work with, but it doesn’t matter what the structure is if your mind’s not in the right place. And or you’re letting things frustrate you. And tonight, we had in the first half we let it go up for the second half and all things kind of came together into a great second half performance.”
Alejandro Pozuelo has been involved in 63% of your goals this year. Is he the best player in MLS right now?
“Yeah I mean it’s hard to argue. The best players are guys who score goals, create goals, set up opportunities. You know, the other night, and even in stretches tonight he just did things that the team just needed him to do defensively. And some work that the guys who are creating the most chances don’t want to do. And he did. So, when everybody’s doing that … then we have a great team, a really great team. And tonight, everybody was doing it. Poz was one of the leaders of that. So, the short answer is, it’s hard to argue that … when he’s putting up the numbers and every game he comes out and is impacting those games.”
Was tonight a statement win given where Columbus is in the standings?
“What I care about, honestly, is the statement that it makes inside of our team. And tonight, the statement was, again, emotionally when we stay in the right place, we work together, we stay positive, we stay connected … we can be really good. If we’re not, we can be our own worst enemy and that’s not what we want. And so that’s the message that I want to be loud and clear. And that’s in our locker room. I don’t really care what everybody else thinks. The message in our locker room was clear, they responded to it in the second half, and they proved in a lot of ways what they’re capable of doing when we’re all in the right spot. And so that’s the only message I care about tonight. We got three points and the response was fabulous.”
RICHIE LARYEA – DEFENDER, TORONTO FC
What was going through your mind on the goal?
“I saw that I was pretty open on the wing and the outside back was drawn pretty far out so I thought it was the perfect time for me to try to take him on and see if I could do something. Because in the first half I wasn’t really getting in those positions and I wasn’t able to go at them. So I thought it was a good opportunity to do so and yes, a little bit of improvisation once I got close to the goal because different things open up and there’s different solutions and I went with the one where I thought was the most comfortable for me at the time.”
Your confidence seems to go up each match. Are you surprised with how well you’re playing and how good you’re becoming in this league?
“I have a lot of confidence in myself and my teammates have a lot of confidence in me and I have a lot of confidence in this team. These performances, the team is trying to challenge each other to up our performances every game and step up in big games and big moments. I have it set in my mind where the guys and the coaches have instilled in me and the rest of the team where we have to be ready for moments like these. So, I don’t know if it’s quite a surprise for any of us, we’re just trying to continue to up our performances.”
What was the message you took heading out for the second half?
“It’s only 1-0. It’s not the end of the world. We have quality out there, we have very good players and we also have to understand it’s been a pretty long nine days or whatever it’s been, so it was fair for us to maybe not be as sharp in the first half, we said to each other we need to give it our all in the second half and that’s exactly what we did.”
TORONTO FC – Quentin Westberg; Richie Laryea (Tony Gallacher 89’), Omar Gonzalez, Chris Mavinga, Justin Morrow; Jonathan Osorio (C), Marky Delgado, Pablo Piatti (Liam Fraser 89’), Alejandro Pozuelo (Jayden Nelson 89’); Ayo Akinola (Patrick Mullins 89’), Jozy Altidore (Nick DeLeon 83’)
Substitutes Not Used: Alex Bono, Laurent Ciman, Eriq Zavaleta, Erickson Gallardo
COLUMBUS CREW SC – Eloy Room; Harrison Afful (Chris Cadden 78’), Jonathan Mensah (C), Josh Williams, Hector Jimenez (Milton Valenzuela 57’); Sebastian Berhalter (Aidan Morris 62’), Artur, Luis Diaz (Derrick Etienne 62’), Lucas Zelarayan, Pedro Santos (Youness Mokhtar 78’); Gyasi Zardes
Substitutes Not Used: Andrew Tarbell, Aboubacar Keita, Emmanuel Boateng, Jordan Hamilton
GREG VANNEY – HEAD COACH, TORONTO FC
Given the fact that your team is essentially homeless right now playing in Hartford, you must feel pretty good about how the team is looking right now?
“Yeah, I was very pleased, obviously, as I’m sure everybody was just with the response form first half to second half. So that’s how our mindset needs to be always. The work was good, the reaction, the proactive work was good. It’s just where we need to be all the time. And then sometimes we just need that little kick in the butt we got it. Kudos to the guys, they stepped out and really took charge in the game and imposed themselves on the game and started to win duels and started to really take care of the ball. Our engagement level was high. We were proactive in what we were doing. And we took back control of the game. And when you take control of the game, it gives your special players who can do things more of an opportunity to do those special things. And those guys answered that call too. Very pleased with that. As we all know, times are not as easy, being away all the time. Every game is an away game, but we did our best tonight to try to make this feel like a home field and we will try to carry that each time that we come out, here just for our own mentality. As a group I think we are looking forward to just a quick break and a stop in (Toronto) and reset with our families. Then get back on the road and start another stretch and try to take some more points. But it’s a nice night to build off of. It’s a nice night to have when you’re going to go into a couple days of a little bit of rest.”
What did you say to your team at half?
“A lot of it was just emotionally, we were carrying our frustrations from one place to the next. If something happened, it was impacting people. And there was a lot of that going on. If there was a call that we didn’t like, it was impacting … and our reactions were leading into us getting disconnected, guys showing their emotion on the field, going from working together to maybe walking at the wrong times. And we weren’t a cohesive unit and a lot of it, I think, was just frustration for a lot of different reasons. So we just needed a reset and we needed to drop that and we needed to not be our own worst enemy on the field and we needed to move proactively and we needed to move proactively and to stay connected and be positive to get from one place to the next play. That was a big part of it to be honest and the guys took a deep breath. They came out and they reconnected and went after it. Obviously, we made some tactical adjustments in what we were doing. I think those obviously give us a good structure to work with, but it doesn’t matter what the structure is if your mind’s not in the right place. And or you’re letting things frustrate you. And tonight, we had in the first half we let it go up for the second half and all things kind of came together into a great second half performance.”
Alejandro Pozuelo has been involved in 63% of your goals this year. Is he the best player in MLS right now?
“Yeah I mean it’s hard to argue. The best players are guys who score goals, create goals, set up opportunities. You know, the other night, and even in stretches tonight he just did things that the team just needed him to do defensively. And some work that the guys who are creating the most chances don’t want to do. And he did. So, when everybody’s doing that … then we have a great team, a really great team. And tonight, everybody was doing it. Poz was one of the leaders of that. So, the short answer is, it’s hard to argue that … when he’s putting up the numbers and every game he comes out and is impacting those games.”
Was tonight a statement win given where Columbus is in the standings?
“What I care about, honestly, is the statement that it makes inside of our team. And tonight, the statement was, again, emotionally when we stay in the right place, we work together, we stay positive, we stay connected … we can be really good. If we’re not, we can be our own worst enemy and that’s not what we want. And so that’s the message that I want to be loud and clear. And that’s in our locker room. I don’t really care what everybody else thinks. The message in our locker room was clear, they responded to it in the second half, and they proved in a lot of ways what they’re capable of doing when we’re all in the right spot. And so that’s the only message I care about tonight. We got three points and the response was fabulous.”
RICHIE LARYEA – DEFENDER, TORONTO FC
What was going through your mind on the goal?
“I saw that I was pretty open on the wing and the outside back was drawn pretty far out so I thought it was the perfect time for me to try to take him on and see if I could do something. Because in the first half I wasn’t really getting in those positions and I wasn’t able to go at them. So I thought it was a good opportunity to do so and yes, a little bit of improvisation once I got close to the goal because different things open up and there’s different solutions and I went with the one where I thought was the most comfortable for me at the time.”
Your confidence seems to go up each match. Are you surprised with how well you’re playing and how good you’re becoming in this league?
“I have a lot of confidence in myself and my teammates have a lot of confidence in me and I have a lot of confidence in this team. These performances, the team is trying to challenge each other to up our performances every game and step up in big games and big moments. I have it set in my mind where the guys and the coaches have instilled in me and the rest of the team where we have to be ready for moments like these. So, I don’t know if it’s quite a surprise for any of us, we’re just trying to continue to up our performances.”
What was the message you took heading out for the second half?
“It’s only 1-0. It’s not the end of the world. We have quality out there, we have very good players and we also have to understand it’s been a pretty long nine days or whatever it’s been, so it was fair for us to maybe not be as sharp in the first half, we said to each other we need to give it our all in the second half and that’s exactly what we did.”
The Miami Heat will play the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals, after closing out the Eastern Conference Finals series against the Boston Celtics. Here’s the schedule for the championship series: Game 1: Sept. 30, 6 pm PTGame 2: Oct. 2, 6 pmGame 3: Oct. 4, 4:30 pmGame 4: Oct. 6, 6 pmGame 5*: Oct.…
For all that has been made of the Celtics’ young stars, a young star from the other side sent them home for the season Sunday night. Bam Adebayo, a relentless presence throughout the Eastern Conference Finals, produced his best game with 32 points (11-for-15), 14 rebounds and five assists – certainly enough to hasten the…
For now however, the focus is just on Game 6, as they can’t afford to get caught daydreaming about what might lie ahead lest they become one of the 27 other teams no longer playing this season in the process.
Boston’s bigs buoy Game 5 with Kanter and Theis making critical plays https://t.co/Db5A3zkoFa
Little has changed in terms of likely adjustments; Boston has seemed to have become much more comfortable busting Miami’s preferred mode of bigs-up-front 2-3 zone, and has found ways to minimize center Bam Adebayo’s lob threat inside.
So long as the team’s perimeter and transition defense remains crisp and connected, the tools have been assembled for the job.
The question is whether the Celtics can maintain the laser focus needed to defeat such a disciplined opponent; all of Boston’s losses are arguably a result of them not doing so.
Injuries are largely the same, with only rookie wing Romeo Langford (wrist) out for Boston and the Heat returning the same players healthy as in Game 5.
We like this team’s chances so long as they play together the right way, and predict a solid win at 112-101.
Most online sportsbooks concur, floating the Celtics a -3 spread for the game.
Summary List Placement LeBron James sensed the finish line and carried the Los Angeles Lakers over it on Saturday. James scored 38 points with 16 rebounds and 10 assists to help the Lakers eliminate the Denver Nuggets and make the NBA Finals. It’s James’ 10th overall Finals appearance and his ninth in 10 years. James’ […]
Yankees (33-26, .559) Yesterday’s result:Won 11-4 vs. Marlins Where they stand: The Yankees are one game ahead of the Blue Jays for the division’s No. 2 playoff berth and hold the AL’s fifth seed. Key tiebreakers: The Yankees and Blue Jays split the season series, 5-5. The Yankees currently hold the tiebreaker with a better record vs. the AL East (23-17 to Toronto’s 22-17, though the Blue Jays have one game vs. Orioles remaining). The third tiebreaker is record vs. division opponents over the last 20 games. With a win today to pull even, the Jays would be 12-8 in their last 20 AL East games, giving them the tiebreaker over the Yankees (11-9). Today’s schedule: vs. Marlins, 3:05 p.m. ET
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Blue Jays (32-27, .542) Yesterday’s result:Won 5-2 vs. Orioles Where they stand: The Blue Jays are one game behind the Yankees for the division’s No. 2 playoff berth. They currently hold the No. 8 seed in the AL. Key tiebreakers: The Yankees and Blue Jays split the season series, 5-5. The Yankees currently hold the tiebreaker with a better record vs. the AL East (23-17 to Toronto’s 22-17, though the Blue Jays have one game vs. Orioles remaining). The third tiebreaker is record vs. division opponents over the last 20 games. With a win today to pull even, the Jays would be 12-8 in their last 20 AL East games, giving them the tiebreaker over the Yankees (11-9).
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. >> The Lakers have always — one way or another — found a way to float to the NBA’s biggest stage. A decade was long enough to wait. LeBron James made sure it wouldn’t be any longer. After a jaunt through NBA history, the Denver Nuggets met the one thing they…
The view from left field 