NBA playoffs: Oklahoma City and Detroit extend semifinal lead

The Oklahoma City Thunder and Detroit Pistons both went 2-0 up in their NBA conference semifinals with home wins over the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers, respectively.

The defending champion Thunder defeated the Lakers 125-107 in their Western Conference tie, with Chet Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander each scoring 22 points.

LeBron James added 23 points for the Lakers but his team slipped from a five-point lead to 13 at the end of a crucial third quarter.

Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA’s reigning Most Valuable Player, was limited to 28 minutes on the court due to a series of fouls.

“I’ve got the utmost confidence in our whole team,” Thunder coach Marc Daignot said when asked about playing without his star man.

“We’ve shown that in year one. We’ve tried to train that muscle and we’ve got competitive guys. They see challenges in the game as opportunities and they attack them.”

Cade Cunningham starred for the Pistons in their 107-97 Eastern Conference win over the Cavaliers, scoring 25 points — including 12 in the fourth quarter — and dishing out 10 assists.

“Cad is phenomenal,” Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff said. “He’s killer, close, all the adjectives you want to talk about. He is it. In the fourth quarter, he does his best work.”

Tobias Harris added 21 points for the Pistons, his seventh straight score of 20 or more points in the playoffs, not reaching the mark in back-to-back games during the regular season.

With both winning teams – who are the top seeds in their respective conferences – heading into the best-of-seven semifinals for Saturday’s matchup, the Thunder will be looking to extend their undefeated run in the playoffs this season.