Davis' rebound evens the score

ORLANDO (Florida) • The Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks stepped it up on Thursday, bouncing back from opening upsets with convincing victories in the National Basketball Association (NBA) first-round play-offs.

LeBron James and the Lakers, seeded first in the Western Conference standings, thumped the Portland Trail Blazers 111-88 to even their best-of-seven series at one game apiece.

Anthony Davis, who struggled through an eight-of-24 shooting night in their Game 1 loss, led Los Angeles with 31 points on 13-of-21 shooting and pulled down 11 boards in 29 minutes at Disney World.

The All-Star forward became the first Laker since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to score more than 30 points in a play-off game in less than 30 minutes of action to offset an uncharacteristically quiet night for James, who had just 10 points.

On Davis, the three-time NBA champion said: "He was just aggressive from the beginning of the game. He wasn't passive at all, looked for his shots. He did a great job of rebounding as well, got some putbacks.

"We knew we had to not have as many defensive lapses. When you have a defensive strategy, you have to execute that strategy for 48 minutes and I think we did a great job of that tonight."

The Lakers held the Blazers to 40 per cent shooting overall and just 27.6 per cent from beyond the arc, although Portland's shooting woes were exacerbated by Damian Lillard leaving the court with less than two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

The All-Star guard dislocated his left index finger - apparently when he banged his hand against Davis' foot while reaching for the ball - and failed to return for the fourth quarter.

Lillard, who torched the Lakers for 34 points in Game 1, finished with 18.

While he insisted that he would start in Game 3 today, saying his hand was "just sore", his injury comes as a severe blow to the Blazers, who need him at his best if they are to upset the championship contenders.

Portland's star player was named the best player of the restart, averaging 37.6 points and 9.6 assists in eight seeding games.

In the Eastern Conference, the league's reigning Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 28 points and 20 rebounds as Milwaukee brought the defensive intensity that carried them to the NBA's best regular-season record.

The title contenders came back from a humbling loss in Game 1 to beat the Orlando Magic 111-96, in which they outrebounded their opponents 57-42 and held them to without a point in the paint for the first quarter.

"Our whole mindset during this game was to come out, play hard, play together, and as long as we got stops, we were going to figure it out on offence," the All-Star forward said. "I think the team did a great job first quarter, setting the tone. Coming out hard, playing hard, rebounding the ball and just making the right play."

Centre Brook Lopez, who contributed 20 points, added: "The effort was definitely an 'A'. Game 1 they came in and they outworked us, that's not something we can allow."

Elsewhere, the Houston Rockets and Miami Heat both took 2-0 leads in their series, beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 111-98 and the Indiana Pacers 109-100 respectively.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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ORLANDO v MILWAUKEE

Game 3: StarHub Ch217, tomorrow, 1am