Basketball
LeBron defeats Pelicans to advance Lakers to NBA Cup Finals
there is no limit lebron james, you get to play one of the most perfect games of your life on the eve of your first NBA Finals.myth of 38 yearshas already celebrated his next birthday in December of this year and is ordered with contemptuous authority Los Angeles Lakers towards the beginning Last of the history of nba cup, will face the league’s hottest team, the Indiana Pacers, early Sunday morning (2:30 a.m. Peninsula Time).of new orleans pelicans Only a quarter appeared Las Vegas Then, at the first performance on the competition’s main stage, it melted like sugar and collapsed with a loud bang. 133-89. Zion Williamson and his team lost by 44 points in the final quarter, a result typical of a hangover.
Already in the second it became clear that their highest fantasies would not come true in front of the supernatural and timeless dimensions of rival stars.with lebron 18 points in the second quarterHe was near perfect, hitting 6-of-8 shots and 3-of-3 triples, but all his hopes were dashed at halftime, a great addition to this theoretical decline with no end in sight to his pro career. .Partial 38-24 for Angelenos in the standings. 13 up (67-54)and this break did not prompt any kind of reaction from rivals.
Missed 14 shots in a row The Pelicans took the lead on the restart, and the Lakers wiped them off the map with a 43-17 (+26) run in the third period. In the final quarter, the substitute players succeeded in widening the lead to 44 points, and in the end, the score was unbelievable for the Final Four.
LeBron and the rest of the starters didn’t even have to take the court in the final period. King he flaunted his crown No points allowed with 30 points, 5 rebounds, and 8 assists. just 23 minutes Games (9-12 TC; 4-4 3P; 8-8 TL). The Lakers needed a few more players who could calmly trot along with him even in the midst of upheaval. austin reeves He had a great time starting on the bench, reaching 17 points and 7 assists. anthony davis was allowed up to alley-oop He showed off his great friendships, shared laughs on the court and even sat on the bench. He recorded 16 points and 15 rebounds as a center, and Prince, Russell, Hachimura and others also achieved double-digit points without breaking a sweat.
trey murphy He became New Orleans’ leading scorer with 14 points, starting on the bench. The Pelicans looked more like a backyard band than a team, unable to work together, but most of all, not at their best, at least defensively. Brandon IngramThe former Laker, who was this year’s leading scorer with an average of 27.9 points, only scored nine points in this game. zionHis first appearance, the eternal promise of American basketball, was wasted. main stage and it remained at 13 points Not chicha or lemon. This is perhaps the best summary of his career since being drafted No. 1 in 2019.
“We went into the game with a good defensive mentality, but “When you play defense, you have a chance to win every game.”With permission, we analyzed LeBron, the great protagonist of the night. Tyrese Haliburton, his next rival. “We are continuing to improve and in some areas we are getting healthier, which allows us to play better at the back and forward. we are in a great moment”, he praised the star, who was unable to prevent a decline in his spectacular performance even in his 21st season.
While adding a cup win to his record, especially on his debut, is no doubt an interesting achievement for him, James didn’t want to miss out on the enthusiasm his game conveyed. “We’re not going to get carried away with this., this in-season tournament is great, but it’s only December. “Our goal is to continue to improve in each match and aim to win the next one.” Great mentions in 21st century competitions were limited to comments. His debut in 2003.
“It was very complicated before I came here, but But that doesn’t erase the great disappointment we feel with our lack of competitiveness today,” Pelicans coach Willie Green lamented. “We have never been ourselves.” Williamson concluded, clearly upset by New Orleans’ poor individual and collective performance. That’s a lesson everyone will learn.
Los Angeles Lakers
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new orleans pelicans
Los Angeles (133): Russell (14), Reddish (9), James (30), Prince (15), Davis (16) – starting quintet -; Hachimura (12), Vanderbilt (2), Wood (4), Lewis (3) ), Hayes (4), Christie (6), Reeves (17), Hood Schifino (1).
New Orleans (89): McCollum (9), Jones (10), Ingram (9), Williamson (13), Valanciunas (9) – starting quintet -; Robinson-Earl (0), Marshall (5), Zeller (2), Alvarado (8) ), Lewis Jr. (2), Murphy III (14), Hawkins (4), Daniels (4).
Part part: 29-30 / 38-24 / 43-17 / 23-18
Umpire: Kevin Cutler, Scott Foster, Ashley Moyer-Gleich
Incident: The second semifinal of the NBA in-season tournament was played in front of a crowd of 18,017 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
See match sheet
Source: Mundo Deportivo
I have been working as a sports journalist for about 6 years now. I currently work as an author at Sportish, which is a sports news website. I mainly cover sports news and I love writing about all aspects of the sport. I also have experience working as a broadcast journalist, so I have some great insights into how sport is reported and presented.
On the night of December 25-26, as part of the Christmas games of the NBA regular season, the Denver Nuggets defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime, 142:128.
Nuggets’ point guard Jamal Murray played with 35 points (2/3 free throws, 3/14 two-pointers, 9/18 three-pointers) and 10 assists in this game.
The Canadian player broke the record for the most accurate three-pointers in a match by making 9 three-pointers in the Minnesota hoop. Thus, he surpassed the record of 8 three-pointers each of Stephen Curry (2024), Grayson Allen (2023), Luka Doncic (2023) and Patty Mills (2021).
Murray also became the third player in NBA Christmas history to score 35+ points, 10+ assists and 5+ 3-pointers, joining Luka Doncic and Tracy McGrady.
JAMAL MURRAY brought the heat to CHRISTMAS DAY!
🔥35 POINTS
🔥10 AST
🔥 9 15:00 (most in Christmas Day matches)He joins Luka Dončić and Tracy McGrady only in the 35-PT, 10-AST, 5-3PM matches. #NBAXmas history. pic.twitter.com/LithevHmF5
— NBA (@NBA) December 26, 2025
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
On the evening of December 25 and the night of December 26, five Christmas games were traditionally held as part of the NBA regular season.
The most important match of the match day was played in Oklahoma, where the Thunder hosted San Antonio.
The home team started the game better and were ahead for most of the first quarter, but they missed a move 0:11 into the quarter, allowing Spurs to take the lead 41:36. Oklahoma was unable to take the lead after that, but San Antonio maintained its lead by keeping the game under control and eventually won 117-102.
The Spurs have won all three games against the Thunder this season, while Oklahoma has lost just two of the other 28 games.
The most productive player of the match was Fox, who brought 29 points to San Antonio, while Vembanyama also scored a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
The Lakers played Houston at home and suffered a crushing defeat.
The fate of the match was decided in the first quarter, when the Rockets won by 12 points (25:37). Afterwards, they increased their advantage by completely controlling the course of the match and eventually won with a score of 119:96.
For Houston, Thompson scored 26 points and Shengyun had a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Denver and Minnesota closed out game day.
The first half of the match ended in a draw. Neither team managed to take a lead of more than 9 points, and Denver entered the big break with a 2-point lead at 57:55. In the third quarter, the Nuggets made an attack of 6:0 at the beginning and 10:2 in the middle, reaching a 16-point lead, and at the end of the quarter they were ahead +15 – 90:78. The Timberwolves did not give up and made a 16:2 move midway through the fourth quarter, reaching a lead of 107:108. This gave fans a tense ending; Edwards hit a three-pointer 2 seconds before the siren, sending the game into overtime at 115:115. And there Jokic played a decisive role and scored 18 points in 5 minutes, allowing the Nuggets to win 142:138.
Jokic scored 56 points in the NBA on Christmas Day, falling just four shy of Bernard King’s record. Nikola also recorded a triple-double with 16 rebounds and 15 assists. Murray had a double-double with 35 points and 10 assists.
NBA. Regular season. Christmas Day, 25-26 December
New York – Cleveland – 126:124 (23:38, 37:20, 24:38, 42:28)
New York: Brunson (34), Hart (15), Bridges (12), Towns (11 + 14 rebounds), Anunoby (8) – start; Clarkson (25), Kolek (16 + 9 assists), Diawara (5), Hookporty (0), Robinson (0 + 12 rebounds).
cleveland: Mitchell (34 + 7 rebounds + 6 assists), Garland (20 + 10 assists), Merrill (11), Allen (7 + 9 rebounds), Wade (6) – start; Tyson (16), E. Mobley (14 + 9 rebounds), Hunter (13), Bryant (3), Ball (0).
Oklahoma – San Antonio – 102:117 (36:41, 24:28, 19:26, 23:22)
Oklahoma: Gilgeous-Alexander (22), Hartenstein (13 + 12 rebounds), Jaylen Williams (12 + 6 assists), Holmgren (10 + 12 rebounds), Dort (8) – start; Caruso (12), K. Williams (8), Wiggins (5), Joe (5), Wallace (5), Carlson (2), Barnhizer (0), Youngblood (0).
San Antonio: Fox (29), Castle (19 + 7 assists), Barnes (15), Cornet (6), Vassell (5) – start; Vembanyama (19 + 11 rebounds), Harper (12), K. Johnson (9 + 7 rebounds), McLaughlin (3), Sohan (0), Shempeni (0), Brian (0), Olynyk (0), Waters (0).
Golden State – Dallas – 126:116 (40:28, 31:30, 29:31, 26:27)
Golden State: Curry (23), Butler (14 + 9 rebounds + 9 assists), Moody (12), Dr. Green (7), Post (6) – start; Melton (16), Horford (14), Podziemski (13 + 8 rebounds), Jackson-Davis (10), Payton II (6), Richard (5).
dallas: Flagg (27), Marshall (14), Washington (14 + 10 rebounds), Nembhard (4), Davis (3) – starter; Williams (26), Christie (13), Thompson (7), Gafford (6), Caleb Martin (2).
Lakers-Houston-96:119 (25:37, 28:26, 21:29, 22:27)
Lakers: Doncic (25 + 7 assists + 6 turnovers), James (18), Reeves (12), Ayton (10), Hachimura (0) – start; Vanderbilt (11), Smart (6), Larevia (5), James Jr. (3), Thiero (2), Knecht (2), Kleber (2).
Houston: Thompson (26 + 7 rebounds), Durant (25 + 9 assists), Smith (16 + 7 rebounds), Shengyun (14 + 12 rebounds + 6 turnovers), Eason (13) – start; Sheppard (13), Capela (6), Adams (4 + 9 rebounds), Tate (2), A. Holiday (0), Davison (0), Green (0), Okogie (0), Finney-Smith (0).
Denver – Minnesota – 142:138 (STARTING 32:29, 25:26, 35:23, 23:37, 27:23)
Denver: Jokic (56 + 16 rebounds + 15 assists + 5 turnovers), J. Murray (35 + 10 assists), Hardaway (19), Jones (12 + 9 rebounds), Watson (9) – start; B. Brown (7), Nnaji (2), Valanciunas (2), Strother (0).
Minnesota: Edwards (44 + 6 turnovers), Randle (32 + 7 rebounds + 6 assists), McDaniels (21), Gobert (9 + 12 rebounds + 6 blocks), DiVincenzo (6 + 7 rebounds + 8 assists) – start; Reed (13), Hyland (11), Clark (2), Juzeng (0), Conley (0), Shannon (0).
tournament tables
Western Conference
Eastern Conference
Source: Sport UA
I am a sports journalist who has written for various websites and magazines. I currently work as an author at Sportish, a news website that covers sports news. My main focus is writing about soccer, rugby and other sports in the world.
Head coach of “Kharkov Falcons” Valery Plekhanov He summarized the team’s 2025 results and talked about the preparations for the continuation of the season:
“Summing up the results of the calendar year, I want to congratulate all our fans on the upcoming New Year and Merry Christmas, wish our favorite team peace and good victories! “Kharkov Falcons” are the first players of this Super League season, so second place at the moment is a good result.
There are a few points we would like to emphasize separately. First of all, seven players from last season’s active squad won the Premier League together, but five of them never played in the Super League. Therefore, the experience they gained in the first half of this season is almost priceless. Secondly, Kharkiv Falcons are one of the two champion teams that did not play a single match at home. It’s very difficult when you’re not playing for your fans, you’re training in one gym, and you’re playing in a different gym every time, even on home tours. In these conditions, 4 defeats in 13 matches is a good result.
One of the most negative moments of this year was not being able to participate in the last four of the Ukrainian Cup. Unfortunately, we were a little unlucky in the draw. After an emotionally difficult and physically exhausting match with Krivbass, we did not have enough strength for the next match against Kiev-Basket in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, our performances in the cup are over, but now we will be able to focus all our efforts on the championship.
Our main problem now is injuries. We have five injured players, three of whom have serious injuries that require a long recovery period. We’re about to get off to a very tough start to the new calendar season because the Falcons will be playing basketball six weekends in a row, which means six road trips with no rest time. If we could count on all twelve players in the squad at the beginning of the season, there will no longer be such a rotation. Therefore, all the responsibility and burden will fall on the players in the rankings. I hope they get over their injuries in the new year, recover from their injuries as soon as possible, return to work and help their beloved club properly represent Kharkiv in the Super League.
Despite the holidays, we have training scheduled almost seven days a week. “I really hope that by January 10 we will be a combat-ready team that can solve serious problems.”
Source: Sport UA
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
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