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LeBron James stars as LA Lakers beat Houston Rockets to set up Oklahoma City Thunder showdown

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LeBron James scored 28 points as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets to set up a Western Conference semi-final play-off against reigning NBA champions Oklahoma City Thunder.

James also added seven rebounds and eight assists to help the Lakers to a 98-78 victory, which secured a 4-2 series win against the Rockets.

The Lakers had led the series 3-0 and finally closed out the best-of-seven contest in convincing style away at Houston, whose top scorer was Amen Thompson with 18 points.

“A lot of our guys, quite frankly, have not been in this position, have not been in a close-out situation, especially on the road, so it was important for me to go out and set the tone,” said 41-year-old James.

Lakers coach JJ Redick was full of admiration for the performance of James, who is the first player to take part in 23 consecutive NBA seasons and is also the league’s record points scorer.

“To me, he’s had the greatest career of any NBA player,” said Redick. “You can argue all you want; I don’t care to postulate on who’s the greatest of all time.

“He’s one of, if not the greatest of all time, and for him to do it again and answer the bell again, it’s baffling in some ways.”

The Lakers face a tough task against the Thunder, who finished top of the Western Conference and secured a 4-0 series win against the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA play-offs.

The first game of their best-of-seven series is in Oklahoma on Tuesday.

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Matt Fitzpatrick wins French Open for fourth title of season

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French Open – final round

-20 M Fitzpatrick (Eng); -17 A Hidalgo (Esp); -15 M Pavon (Fra), T Vaillant (Fra), K Reitan (Nor), E Lopez-Chacarra

Selected others: -12 L Aaberg (Swe); -10 E Ferguson (Sco), D Bradbury (Eng); -7 E Molinari (Ita), V Hovland (Nor)

Full leaderboard

England’s Matt Fitzpatrick secured his fourth title of the season with a three-shot win at the French Open in Paris.

Fitzpatrick carded a one-under-par 70 to hold off the challenge of Spain’s Angel Hidalgo at Le Golf National.

The 32-year-old has already won the Valspar Championship and RBC Heritage titles on the PGA Tour this year, as well as the Zurich Classic team event in New Orleans alongside younger brother Alex.

He led by five shots going into the final day, but a run of 12 successive pars allowed the chasing pack to cut that advantage to two.

However, crucial birdies on the 13th and 15th pushed Fitzpatrick further clear and even a bogey at the last could not deny him an 11th European Tour title.

“Delighted to get it over the line, it was definitely a battle today,” he said.

“I didn’t have my best stuff for the first 12 holes and then managed to find some of my best stuff.

“In a way I was quite lucky – I left myself in some nice spots where you can still get up and down from, but I fully took advantage of that and did really well.”

Matthieu Pavon shot the best round of the day, with a seven-under 64 ensuring he finished tied for fourth alongside French compatriot Tom Vaillant, Spain’s Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra and Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan.

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Laver Cup: Alexander Zverev beats Learner Tien to seal victory for Team Europe

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Alexander Zverev beat Learner Tien on the final day of the Laver Cup to lead Team Europe to their sixth title.

US Open champion Zverev recovered from a disappointing defeat by Team World’s Alex de Minaur on day two and eased to a 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 win over Tien at London’s O2 Arena.

After Carlos Alcaraz’s heroics kept Europe in contention after that loss on day two, Flavio Cobolli and Jakub Mensik beat De Minaur and Taylor Fritz in the doubles to extend their lead before Zverev’s triumph.

Both wins took Europe’s tally to the required 13 needed to win, which meant that Alcaraz was not required to play again.

“I haven’t won a Laver Cup match in two years, so I’m happy I did it today,” said Zverev.

“Massive credit to the entire Team World. They pushed us all the way again, they were champions last year. We have a great team chemistry, it was a team effort.

“Winning as a team, there’s no better feeling in sports. We don’t have enough of it in tennis.”

The USA’s Tien, 20, was making his Team World debut and held his nerve in the first set to force a tiebreak, but world number two Zverev took control in the second and closed out the victory in one hour and 49 minutes.

Zverev has been part of all six of Team Europe’s Laver Cup wins, and has the most singles wins at the event with eight.

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England vs Sri Lanka highlights, third ODI: Hosts win by 223 runs

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Tom Banton delivers on all of his potential by crashing a brilliant first international century as England wrap up their summer with an ODI series win over Sri Lanka.

MATCH REPORT: England win series as Banton delivers on potential

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