OKC Thunder bury LA Lakers to take 3-0 NBA Playoff series lead

Thunder use an explosive second half to beat LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers 131-108 as Ajay Mitchell scores 24.Ajay Mitchell scored 18 of his 24 points in the second ‌‌half, as the Oklahoma City Thunder dominated the final 24 minutes en route to a convincing 131-108 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in ⁠⁠Game 3 of their Western Conference second-round ⁠⁠series.Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 23 points and nine assists as defending champions Thunder took a commanding 3-0 series lead in the Playoff semifinals on Saturday.Chet Holmgren had 18 points and nine rebounds, Cason Wallace added 16 points off the bench⁠ and Mitchell had 10 assists.“The confidence I got from my teammates and our coaching staff has been amazing from Day 1,” Mitchell said. “That’s the key.”The Thunder trailed by two points at half time before steamrolling Los Angeles 74-49 in the second half.Rui Hachimura made five three-pointers and scored a team-high 21 points, ⁠⁠and LeBron James added 19 points, eight assists and six rebounds for the Lakers. Luke Kennard had 18 points off the bench, and Austin Reaves had 17 points and nine assists for Los Angeles.The Thunder can complete the sweep in Monday’s Game 4 at Los Angeles. No team in NBA history has come back to win a playoff series from a 3-0 deficit.“Absolutely,” Gilgeous-Alexander said about wanting to complete the sweep. “You never want to waste an opportunity to win a basketball game. We just ‌‌need to do the same thing we did [in] the first three games.”The loss dropped the Lakers to 0-7 this season against Oklahoma City, with an average losing margin of 25.1 points.