The Golden State Warriors' defence of their NBA crown came to an end in a 4-2 series loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in their Western Conference semi-final.
Heading into Game Six on Friday night with a 3-2 lead, the LeBron James-inspired Lakers prevailed 122-101 at the Crypto.com Arena to progress to the Conference finals for the second time in four years.
On the back of a dreadful start to the season, which saw the Lakers win just two and lose 10 of their opening 12 games, Darvin Ham's team have now become just the second number seven seed to reach the Conference finals - after the 1987 Seattle Supersonics - as their end-of-season purple patch continues.
The Lakers entered half time with a 10-point advantage over the defending champions and never looked back, as James ended the evening with a total of 30 points to his name - hitting that mark for the first time in 18 playoff contests - as well as nine rebounds and nine assists in front of the home crowd.
Anthony Davis recovered from a blow to the head in their fifth game to post a double-double with 17 points and 20 rebounds, while a total of 32 points from Warriors talisman Steph Curry was not enough to spark a comeback.
Three months on from breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's NBA points record, James earned another slice of history on Friday, winning a post-season series match for the 41st time to steer clear of Derek Fisher at the top of the all-time charts.
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A Western Conference final with the Denver Nuggets now awaits the Lakers, while in the Eastern Conference path, the Miami Heat also inched ever closer to an NBA Finals berth with a 4-2 win over the New York Knicks.
Having missed the opportunity to wrap up a series success in Game Five at Madison Square Garden, the Heat returned to familiar territory at the Kaseya Center and eked out a 96-92 triumph.
Despite trailing by as many as 14 points and losing the first quarter 31-24, the Heat produced a creditable turnaround, thanks in no small part to Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
The duo ended the evening with 47 points shared between them - 24 for Butler and a further 23 for Adebayo - while a remarkable 41-point haul from the Knicks' Jalen Brunson was in vain.
"We're one step closer to our goal," Butler told ESPN after the Heat became only the second-ever eighth seed to clinch a Conference finals berth, after the Knicks in the 1998-99 season.
"We already knew what we were capable of from the jump, I'm talking about the beginning of the season. We got eight more to get. I always say we're always going to be in this thing together. So proud of all of my guys for playing as hard as we did today and like I said, we got eight more."
The Heat will battle for a place in the NBA Finals against either the Boston Celtics or Philadelphia 76ers, whose semi-final series is tied at 3-3 heading into Sunday's winner-takes-all Game Seven.
Ben Knapton
