Los Angeles Lakers the Reigning NBA champions, have suffered a shock first-round playoffs defeat to the Phoenix Suns. Devin Booker scored 47 points for the Suns as they sealed a famous 4-2 series win.
LeBron James scored 29 points for the Lakers, who are the first defending champions to lose in the first round of the playoffs since the San Antonio Spurs back in 2015. The result also marks the first time that James has lost in the first round of the playoffs in his entire career.
The Suns will now face the high flying Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semi-finals after they clinched a 4-2 series win over the Portland Trail Blazers. Nikola “the joker” Jokic scored 36 points for the Nuggets, whose 126-115 victory condemned Blazers to a fourth first-round defeat in five seasons.
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Lakers humbled by Booker and the Suns
Having won his previous 14 first-round play-off series. James found himself attempting to avoid elimination from the first round for only the second time in his illustrious career against the Phoenix Suns.
In their previous meeting in 2010, the Lakers knocked out the Suns. Anthony Davis injury in game 3 put them on the back foot this time around. He did try to fight the pain. And played game 4 but a missed layup, caused and injured groin to the superstar who was so instrumental in all the Lakers’ victories. He was out in game 5 and played last night only to injured again in the first quarter. Davis’ withdrawal after just over five minutes, allowed the Suns to take control at the Staples Centre.
The injury to Davis along with Devin Booker running on jet fuel was the final nail in the coffin. Booker came to the fore with 22 points in the opening period as the Suns went 36-14 ahead. The suns, the way they were playing was just all too much for LeBron and the gang. They dominated the whole game and crumbled Lakers to a comfortable 113-100 win. Thus sealing the round one playoff 4-2.
“I’ve been working my whole life for this moment so it wasn’t time to shy away from it,” Booker said.
“Plenty of hours of sacrificing a lot of life to this game. So I wanted to put it on full display tonight.
“We knew we weren’t going to get to where we wanted to go without going through them. And it happened to be in the first round.”
The Suns in the form they are, look extremely dangerous and might just go off win the 2021 NBA Finals.
