Riding an orange wave of support in the desert, the Suns sent the four-time league MVP to the locker room early and took control of their first-round playoff series with a 115-85 dismantling of the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.

The Suns lead 3-2, one win shy of becoming the first team in 15 tries to send James packing in the first round of the playoffs.

“There’s nobody that’s scared of the moment,” Suns guard Devin Booker said. “We’re a confident team.”

The Suns won in Los Angeles on Sunday to tie the series and went right at the Anthony Davis-less Lakers in front of a revved-up crowd in Game 5.

Davis was out after suffering a groin injury in Game 4 and the Suns took advantage by attacking every chance they had. The Lakers put up little resistance, allowing Phoenix to score nearly at will while building a 30-point halftime lead — Los Angeles’ largest halftime deficit in 25 years.

James scored 17 of his 24 points in the third quarter, but couldn’t rally the listless Lakers. He sat at the end of the bench by himself in the fourth quarter before heading to the locker room with about five minutes left.

Game 6 is Thursday in Los Angeles and the Lakers need to find some answers, quick.

“We got our ass kicked. It is that simple,” James said after losing consecutive first-round games for the first time in his 15-year career. “They did whatever they wanted to win this game.”

Booker scored 30 points after two quiet games, the Suns made 14 3-pointers and had just four turnovers against the NBA’s regular-season defensive efficiency leader.

The only bad news: point guard Chris Paul took a shot to his injured right shoulder in the third quarter and did not return.

“It scared me,” said Paul, who added he should be all right. “It was just a very uncomfortable feeling, kind of helpless.”

The series between one-time rivals has been shaped by injuries.

The Suns won the first game in the desert despite Paul injuring his shoulder. Los Angeles won the next two with Paul ailing, then Phoenix took Game 4 102-94 in Los Angeles after Davis went down with a groin injury.

The Suns took advantage of Davis’ absence early in Game 5, repeatedly getting into the lane for shots or kickouts for open looks.

Booker was the biggest beneficiary.

He had been relatively quite the previous two games — at least for one of the league’s top scorers — scoring a combined 36 points on 11-of-24 shooting. Phoenix’s young All-Star came out firing in the pivotal game of the series, scoring 18 points in the first quarter and hitting a corner jumper to put the Suns up 18 early in the second.

“I just wanted to be aggressive,” Booker said. “In studying film, I think I passed up a lot of quick ones.”

Booker wasn’t the only one dropping shots.

The Suns had their way against Los Angeles’ reach-and-swipe defense, leaving the Lakers flat footed with their quickness and rapid ball movement.

Phoenix made eight 3-pointers, 26 of 48 shots and had one turnover to lead 66-36 at halftime. It was the Lakers’ largest halftime deficit since trailing Utah by 26 in 1998, according to SportRadar.

The Suns kept on the gas even as James became more aggressive in the third quarter, maintaining a 29-point lead heading before both teams emptied their benches in the fourth.

“We didn’t play well on either side of the ball,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “We’ll find out what we are made of and how bad we want this.”

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:tholmlundnyp

In a Hollywood heartbreaker, the Knicks blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead and the defending-champion Lakers showed their mettle by surviving a 101-99 overtime battle at Staples Center on Tuesday night.

The Knicks had the game and the playoffs in the bag but couldn’t hold off these Lakers, even with LeBron James watching from the bench.

“It sucks,’’ Julius Randle said. “We fought like hell. Guys played to exhaustion. To do what we did, last game of the road trip, against a championship-caliber team, the play was great. And for me to have an opportunity to finish the game off. I felt I had to finish the game.’’

Talen Horton-Tucker, who went to the same Chicago high school as Derrick Rose, hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 13 seconds left in overtime to win it and keep the Knicks’ magic number at 1.

Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau was despondent over the final seconds of regulation when Wesley Matthews’ offensive putback sent the game into overtime. Matthews took the rebound away from Derrick Rose.

A tight-lipped Thibodeau said the game was lost not on Horton-Tucker’s trey but rather the rebound they didn’t get to close regulation.

“Rebounding beat us tonight,’’ Thibodeau said. “All we had to do is get that last rebound — the last shot of the game. Everyone’s got to get a body on everyone. That’s the bottom line. Their rebounding hurt us throughout the game. We always say defend, rebound and keep turnovers down. If you neglect that area, you’re going to be pay for it.’’

Rose said Thibodeau got on him afterward.

“It’s f–king hard right now,’’ Rose said. “It just sucks, man. ’’

With the Celtics losing to the Heat, 129-121, earlier in the evening, the Knicks took the court with a chance to clinch their first playoff berth since 2013.

After Horton-Tucker’s 3 on which Rose was picked off by Anthony Davis, the Knicks couldn’t get off a good shot on the last possession as a struggling RJ Barrett had to fire a 40-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Randle punished his former team with 31 points and Rose scored 27 points off the bench and had a late steal in OT that looked to be the clincher.

It wasn’t. Randle hit a big 3-pointer with 1:10 left to give the Knicks the lead but they couldn’t hold on. Ultimately, the Knicks couldn’t survive an awful night from Barrett (2 of 13, 0 of 7 on 3-pointers).

After allowing the Matthews rebound, Randle nearly won it on the final possession of regulation and shouldered blame for the loss that put the Knicks at 3-3 on their six-game Western swing. They will close the season with three home games with the magic number at one to break the playoff drought.

“I wouldn’t call it a success,’’ Randle said of the trip. “I felt we had a chance to go 5-1. I had a chance to close it out and make it a successful trip at 4-2.”

The Knicks blew that 10-point fourth-quarter lead yet rallied from five down in OT. But they couldn’t close either session.

The fourth quarter went down to the final possession after the Knicks were harassed into a 24-second violation, giving the Lakers the ball with 13.3 seconds left down two.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope missed a corner 3 but Matthews grabbed the offensive rebound from Rose and put it in to tie the score with 3.1 seconds left.

Next, the Knicks ran a great play and Randle raced past Davis into the paint but couldn’t connect on the runner at the buzzer, with Davis affecting the shot from behind. Onto overtime.

James, watching in his teal top and teal shorts like he just came off the tennis court, opted out of facing the league’s hottest club but celebrated at the end.

Davis was held to 20 points and missed a big jumper with 34 seconds left with a chance to tie in regulation.

Andre Drummond, whom the Knicks couldn’t get to break his verbal agreement with the Lakers, added 16 points and 18 rebounds.

Among those in attendance hoping for history was Knicks superfan Spike Lee — the filmmaker who never abandoned the franchise during their miserable seven-year walk through the wilderness.

The Knicks fell to 38-31 and down to the No. 6 seed in the East based on tiebreakers with Atlanta (38-31) and Miami (38-31).

With Alec Burks and Immanuel Quickley missing the final three games of this trip, Frank Ntilikina was called into action again. And this time, Ntilikina delivered a good outing and closed the game.

Ntilikina finished with nine points, two assists, two steals and zero turnovers in 23 minutes. He drilled two 3-pointers in the first half and made a slick crosscourt pass to Rose, who canned a jumper.

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:tholmlundnyp

Saturday night, after Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil had some kind of an incident in the tunnel connecting the dugout to the clubhouse Friday, the two helped the Mets get off to an early 3-0 lead over the Diamondbacks.

McNeil blasted a two-run shot in the bottom of the third inning and Lindor followed by drawing a walk, stealing second base and speeding all the way around to score on catcher Carson Kelly’s throwing error. It was his first stolen base as a Met, and the 100th of his career.

Friday night, Lindor pulled the Mets even with a two-run shot, his first Citi Field home run, in their come-from-behind, 10-inning, 5-4 win.

After the game, Lindor and McNeil made a joke of whatever it is that happened, saying they saw either a rat or a raccoon in the tunnel and were arguing about it, though it is pretty clear by now the commotion had nothing to do with a wild animal.

Manager Luis Rojas and acting general manager Zack Scott alluded on Saturday to a disagreement the two had and Scott described the rat-raccoon story as “not ideal.

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:tholmlundnyp

Jonathan Villar delivered a walk-off hit in Game 1 and Brandon Nimmo produced generously in the nightcap, allowing the Mets to celebrate a doubleheader sweep of the Phillies in front of 7,611 at Citi Field.

The Mets won 4-3 in eight innings in the first game before taking the nightcap, 4-0.

Nimmo reached base five times in the two games. In the nightcap, he finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs in raising his OPS to 1.146.

Marcus Stroman’s gem in Game 2 gave the Mets consecutive victories for the first time this season. Stroman, who threw only nine pitches Sunday before his start against the Marlins was suspended by rain, fired six shutout innings, in which he allowed four hits. That followed a strong start by Stroman last week in Philadelphia, in which he allowed one earned run over six innings.

In the nightcap, the Mets got busy against Aaron Nola in the fourth inning, when Game 1 hero Villar delivered an RBI double before Nimmo’s two-run single extended the lead to 3-0. Nimmo drove in another run in the sixth with a single after Tomas Nido’s first career triple.

Jeff McNeil started the rally in the fourth by reaching on an infield single. He barely beat the throw to first and the Phillies challenged the call, but it was upheld on replay.

Villar slashed an eighth-inning RBI single against Hector Neris in the first game to complete a wild Mets comeback.

Pete Alonso’s RBI single in the eighth tied it — Francisco Lindor was on second base as the runner to begin the frame, per the extra-inning rule (doubleheaders are seven innings per game) — before Villar ended it with a shot to left field.

The Mets had only three hits in the game entering the inning and had been 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position before Alonso delivered.

Didi Gregorius’ RBI infield single against the shift in the eighth gave the Phillies a 3-2 lead on Trevor May. The run was unearned after catcher James McCann was charged with a passed ball, which allowed Andrew McCutchen to reach third base.

There were boos in the sixth after lefty Jose Alvarado drilled Michael Conforto in the right wrist with a 100-mph fastball. That came after Alvarado threw high-and-tight on Conforto with a fastball of the same magnitude.

Jean Segura’s infield single with two outs in the sixth against Miguel Castro tied it 2-2. Though Rhys Hoskins walked leading off the inning and Bryce Harper singled, Castro was on the cusp of escaping unscathed after striking out Alec Bohm and getting Gregorius to hit into a fielder’s choice. But Segura hit a dribbler to third base and beat Guillorme’s throw, while Hoskins scored to tie the game.

After four strong innings, Taijuan Walker began to fade in the fifth and was removed with one out. Pinch-hitter Brad Miller drew the Phillies’ second straight walk in the inning, this one on four pitches, prompting manager Luis Rojas to summon Castro from the bullpen.

Castro struck out Andrew McCutchen on a changeup before the Phillies attempted a double steal and Roman Quinn was tagged out by Guillorme, who had jumped to catch McCann’s throw. Guillorme landed on Quinn and appeared to move him off the bag with the body blow, allowing for the tag.

Walker’s final line included eight strikeouts and three walks over 4 ¹/₃ innings with one earned run allowed on three hits. In his Mets debut Thursday, the right-hander allowed two earned runs over six innings in a no-decision against the Marlins.

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:tholmlundnyp