The Los Angeles Lakers played to their credentials as the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs to earn an emphatic 111-88 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in Game two of their first-round series near Orlando on Friday (NZ time).
Anthony Davis scored 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while LeBron James added a modest 10 points with six rebounds and seven assists in 27 minutes, as the Lakers rebounded from a 100-93 defeat to the eighth-seeded Blazers in Game one.
Blazers guard Damian Lillard was held to 18 points while CJ McCollum added 13. Portland was limited to 40 percent shooting from the field and 27.6 percent (8 of 29) from 3-point range.
It was the Lakers' first victory in the playoffs since Game 3 of the 2012 Western Conference semifinals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In the second Western Conference clash of the day, Steven Adams and the Oklahoma City Thunder fell to 0-2 in their best-of-seven series against the Houston Rockets.
The Rockets used a big fourth-quarter burst to grab control of game two and claim a 111-98 win.
Adams finished the game with eight points and 11 rebounds, with teammate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scoring a game-high 31 points.
In the Eastern Conference, tThe Milwaukee Bucks held the Orlando Magic to three first-quarter field goals en route to a double-digit lead, then rode Giannis Antetokounmpo's 28 points and game-high 20 rebounds to a 111-96 victory Thursday night near Orlando to even their best-of-seven playoff series at one game apiece.
Nikola Vucevic went for a game-high 32 points, but no other member of the Magic topped 12, as Milwaukee avenged a poor defensive effort in a 122-110 loss in Game one.
En route to the 18th double-double of his postseason career, Antetokounmpo managed his team-high point total despite shooting just 10 of 23 overall and 1 of 5 on 3-pointers. He had 31 points, 17 rebounds and seven assists in the game one loss.
In the opening game, Duncan Robinson tied a franchise postseason record with seven 3-pointers in just his second career playoff game, helping the Miami Heat take a 2-0 lead in their first-round series against the Indiana Pacers with a 109-100 victory.
Robinson finished with a game-high 24 points, Goran Dragic added 20 and Jimmy Butler had 18 in a balanced attack that allowed the fifth-seeded Heat to successfully follow up on Tuesday's 113-101 triumph in the series opener.
