Golden State qualified for the second round of the playoffs in the Western Conference of the National Basketball League of Canada and the USA (NBA), after the champions won 114 – 81 against the Houston Rockets (despite the absence of their biggest star Steph Curry). The Warriors won the series, after winning the fifth game. Their next opponent will be the winner of the game between the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland.

Klay Thompson finished with 27 points, scoring a three-pointer on 7 occasions, while Draymond Green added 15 points and recorded nine rebounds and eight assists. James Harden scored 35 points for the team of Houston, 25 of which came in the first half, in which the result was 59-37 in Warriors’ favour.

Without Curry among the starting 5, The Warriors relied mostly on the second best member of the squad – Thompson. He showed a great performance and set a new NBA record for long-distant shooting. He is now the only player to score 7 threes in two consecutive NBA matches.

Surprisingly, Portland became the favourites for reaching a match against Golden State. The Blazers defeated 108 – 98 Los Angeles Clippers and led by a victory before the decisive sixth game in the series. Christian McCollum scored 27 points. Damian Lillard finished with 22, 16 of which he scored in the last quarter of the game. Exactly, his brilliant performance gave this big chance to his team.

The fans in Miami also saw a surprising result. Charlotte beat 90 – 88 the hosts in the 5th game between these two teams. So, The Hornets have now a big chance to qualify for the next stage. Courtney Lee scored three points just 25.2 seconds before the siren, which was enough for his team to record the third consecutive victory in the series against the favourites from Miami.

National Basketball League of Canada and the USA (NBA) playoffs:

Miami Heat – Charlotte Hornets 88 – 90
• Charlotte lead by 3 – 2 victories in the series after 3 consecutive wins over their opponents.

Golden State – Houston 114 – 81
• Golden State are through after they won the series with 4 victories to 1. Steph Curry is out for two weeks.

Los Angeles Clippers – Portland Trail Blazers 98 – 108
• Portland lead by 3 – 2 wins in the series.

Kobe Bryant played his last professional basketball game. The guard showed a great performance and helped his team – Los Angeles Lakers win against Utah 101-96. The 37-year-old legend scored 60 points! The veteran stayed on the court for 42 minutes in “Staples Center”. He looked as motivated as in his debut in The NBA.

The instructions of the head coach Byron Scott were very simple – ‘Pass the ball to Kobe!’ However, this season was the worst in LA’s history (17 victories and 65 defeats), but the fans could be glad with the performance in the very last match of the season.

So, Kobe Bryant can remember his last match in The NBA with the impressive number of 60 points for just 42 minutes. On the floor were depicted the two numbers that Kobe was wearing for the Lakers (№8 and №24). He scored 16/29 shootings for 2 points, 6/21 for three points and 10/12 from the line. Kobe also made 4 assists and 4 rebounds.

Another club legend in the face of Magic Johnson gave a speech devoted to Bryant before the game, calling him the biggest and greatest celebrity of LA in the last 20 years, and then added that Kobe was the greatest player, to wear the Lakers’ shirt. For 20 seasons at the City of the Angels, the guard from Philadelphia won five NBA titles, and in two cases was the MVP of the finals. He was once voted for the MVP of the regular season, 18 times was selected to participate in the All-Star Game. Kobe Bryant became the top scorer of the league twice, and he is also the leader in a number of statistical charts of the team.

That match was the first with 50 or more points for the legend since February 2009 onwards, and the Lakers were able to win the match, after being down by 15 points. Kobe Bryant scored 23 out of his 60 points in the fourth quarter of the game, but the beginning was not the best for him, after the first 12 minutes he failed to score any of the five shoots.

№24 scored a three-pointer 59 seconds before the final siren, and then repeated the exercise 31 seconds before the end, giving his favourite team a lead of 97-96. The end finally came with an assist, and 4.1 seconds before the final siren Kobe went out of the game, this time forever.

Stephen Curry scored 27 points and made 9 assists in the Golden State Warriors’ victory against San Antonio Spurs 112-101 to become only the second team in history to achieve 70 wins in a single season. So far only Michael Jordan and the legendary team of Chicago Bulls had recorded a similar achievement – 72 wins in season 1995/1996.

The best Warriors’ player Curry was even more motivated after the match. “We wanted to take care of tonight and clinch home court for the playoffs, was a goal of ours. With three games left and 73 still there, it’s obviously a lot to play for,” the guard said.

The champions continued to put on display great performance and they will try to equalize the Bulls’ balance of 72 victories and 10 defeats. The Warriors must win their last three games of the season – the trips to Memphis and San Antonio and the home match against Memphis, in order set a new record. The other teams, which were a step away from the record of “70” were the Los Angeles Lakers (1971/1972 – 69-13), and again the Chicago Bulls (1996/1997 – 69-13).

This success provided the Golden State an advantage in the playoffs, while the Spurs recorded their thirteenth loss of the season and now have a total of 65-13 against 70-9 for the Warriors.

The hosts recorded an easy victory. They had an advance of 20 points on several occasions during the match several times during the meeting exceeded their lead to 20 points. The Warriors made 33 assists for their 45 baskets of the game, scoring 12 threes from 25 attempts.

Harrison Barnes finished with 21 points and 8 rebounds for the Golden State Warriors, while Draymond Green scored 18 points and made 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 1 steal, although making three fouls during the first half. Klay Thompson finished with 14 points (5 of 13 shooting).

Kawhi Leonard scored 23 points for the Spurs. LaMarcus Aldridge and David West added 11 points as West impressed with 7 assists. Tony Parker and Kevin Martin scored 10 points each.

“We’ve been putting it off for as long as we were able to, which was until we got the 1-seed. Now that we have that, I’m inclined to give some guys some rest if they need it, but I’ve sort of made a pact with the guys that if they are not banged up and they are not tired and if they want to go for this record or whatever then — so we got to talk,” the Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr said in an interview.

At both ends, Golden State Warriors have never been so close to make such record. They must achieve 3 victories in their last 3 games of the regular season.

Worthing Thunder showed a great performance and beat Leicester Warriors 85-75 at the Worthing Leisure Center. The 10-point-difference victory was the perfect way for The Thunders finish the season in the National Basketball League.

Even though Worthing beat Leicester, Thunder finished one place below the Warriors, in tenth place both with a record of 10-16. The only thing separating these two teams in the standings was the Warriors victory over Worthing Thunder in January (100-81) and thank to the larger margin Leicester left in a higher position.

The victory was third in a row for Worthing Thunder, and despite missing out on the ninth, the coach Daniel Hildreth should be happy that his team finished the season in style, with the best possible performance.

“Winning three games in a row and winning four of our last five matches with that loss to Lancashire only being by two points is a testament to the guys, who despite not qualifying for the Playoffs, never gave up and wanted to make an impression until the very last game until the end of the season and not fade away. Tonight was fantastic showing and a great way to end the season. Credit to Leicester Warriors who were really short-handed but we really wanted to finish the season on a high and we did that,” Daniel Hildreth said after the match, with a smile on his face.

James Cambronne of Thunder was the best on the court and finished with 28 points and 14 rebounds, supported by 15 points, scored by Josh Brown and 12 by Tom Ward.
Leon Henry showed a great performance for Leicester, finishing with 22 points, off the bench.

Thunder were so motivated, that with just under six minutes of the quarter played, a slam by Ward handed Worthing their first solid lead of the game at 20-10.
Leicester Warriors then held the hosts to just three points in the last four minutes of the first period, but a three-pointer from James Cambronne ensured a comfortable lead for Worthing of 23-14.

Exactly because of Leon Henry and Theo Rothstein, Leicester Warriors managed to narrow the gap to single digits on several occasions in the second period, but they were unable to hold the enthusiastic Thunder’s players. However, Worthing controlled the game and the crucial moment was when Louis Allen scored a three-pointer, making the difference of 34-20. At the half time, the host maintained their lead to 43-30.

After the break, Worthing Thunder had a lead of 68-48, which grew to 70-48 in the very first minutes of the 4th quarter, thanks to a Tomas Sedukis’ slam.

At both ends, Leicester didn’t give up until the final siren and made the match more interesting, but the time until the end wasn’t enough for something more than melting hosts’ lead to 10 points.

The new star of Los Angeles Lakers D’Angelo Russell wrath the anger of the entire team after it became clear that he has recorded a conversation with his teammate Nick Young without his knowledge. 20-year-old guard held a conversation with Young in which he was asked questions about Young’s personal life, such as whether he has been with other women since he’s engaged to the music star Iggy Azalea.

Young, himself still can’t understand why the youngster has recorded everything on a video. After this action, Russell is not anymore among the favourites in the locker room of the LA Lakers. The media claim that most of the other players are isolating and deliberately avoiding to communicate with him.

The members of the club management are aware of the situation, but at that time they haven’t taken any measures and have left the players alone to deal with the situation.

One of the players, who wanted to remain anonymous, commented to ESPN that the situation is far from perfect, since before this incident Lakers had problems of backstage character, but the performance of the Russell banged everything. Now, it’s almost impossible Lakers’ players to trust each other.

But one thing is still not clear. What is the reason for Russell’s action? Maybe he wants Nick Young’s girlfriend to hear something that she mustn’t know? Maybe he has been offended of his teammate and now wants a revenge? Or maybe D’Angelo wants Azalea for himself? Who knows? The important thing is that Russell has shown he is far away from maturity.

“I haven’t talked to him, won’t talk to him. That’s an internal matter that our guys will deal with. The only thing that I’m disappointed about is that it got out. We’re a family, and we try to keep everything in house,” the coach Byron Scott said in an interview. “He’s such a kid. I told him the other day, ‘You are 20, but sometimes I think you are 14.’”

The youngster is maybe ashamed of his behaviour, as he refused to give an interview, walking out of the court with only saying: “Nope, nothing to talk about.” For sure, if he wants to have a good career, he will have to grow up.

D’Angelo Russell was selected under №2 in last year’s draft and is considered as a key part of the future of the Lakers and the new vision of the club after Kobe Bryant retire. The former star of Ohio State has been having not a bad debut season in the pros with an average of 13.1 points, 3.4 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals.