San Antonio bulldozed their way through to the Western Conference finals as they defeated the LA Clippers to record their 8th straight playoff victory. This is the first time in the 21st century that the franchise has won both their round 1 and 2 games 4 -0 and the last time they did so, the team went on to win its first ever NBA ring. Elsewhere, Miami took back home advantage from the Indiana Pacers thanks to a stellar performance from LeBron James and Dwayne Wade, who silenced the Indiana crowd with their individual brilliance.

Miami Heat 101 - 93 Indiana Pacers

One can never doubt the ability of superstars to overcome poblems, no matter how grave they may be. After facing scepticism from all quarters as to whether they can take on the Indiana Pacers on their own without the ubiquitous Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade, responded emphatically by scoring a combined 70 points to give their team an 8 point win over their opponents to level the series 2 - 2. James had 40 points, 18 boards and 9 assists, that completely captivated both the audience at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse and their opponents the Indiana Pacers. Indiana coach Frank Vogel said after the game, "It comes down to this: yes, you can get the ball out of their hands and make other guys make plays but you get the ball out of one of those guys' hands and it finds its way to the other guy. It's not just like one superhero and a bunch of role players. You've got to worry about the other guy."

San Antonio rallied back from a 22 point deficit in the first quarter to win Game 3 by 10 points and take a 3 - 0 lead in their series against the LA Clippers. An initial burst was followed by a quick burn out for the Clippers who even provided the audience with a rare 8 point quarter. In the other game, The Oklahoma City Thunder took a step closer to making it to their second successive Western Conference Finals. OKC were thoroughly dominated by the Lakers till the final quarter surge from them, completely bamboozled the home team and forced them to hand over the game to their opponents.

San Antonio Spurs 96 - 86 Los Angeles Clippers

The LA Clippers started with an adrenaline rush taking a 22 point lead at the end of the first quarter but the experienced San Antonio team remained unfettered as they mounted a slow yet uncompromising challenge against the home team to finally win the game by a 10 point margin. The Clippers fizzled out after their brilliance in the first half which saw them capitalise over the poor shooting of the Spurs. But the third quarter saw the Clippers score just 8 points which is never good enough against an in form Spurs team that are known to give their best in the post season. ·"We did not plan on being down that much in the first quarter, but we understood that they were going to make a run early, and we needed to sustain. We've been through enough of them to understand that's how it goes. It was great poise by our entire team." Spurs forward Tim Duncan spoke after the game.

There seems to be a negative corelation between the Boston Celtics and the LA Lakers. Whenever the latter picks up a victory the former is down in dumps in defeat. And the corelation works in a reverse relationship as well. On Friday night, The Celtics saw their opponents, the Phildelphia 76ers, draw level in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals with a 9 point victory at the Wells Fargo Centre. The LA Lakers required a last quarter surge and a truck load of free throws (41 to be precise) in their Game 3 clash against the cohesive Oklahoma City Thunder to pick up a 3 point win and pull a game back to make it 2 - 1 in their series.

Oklahoma City Thunder 96 - 99 Los Angeles Lakers

Kobe Bryant was back to being himself as he nailed all 18 of his free throws and scored 14 points of his 36 on the night in the final quarter, to lead his team's late surge to a three point victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Game 3 win was the Lakers' 2nd triumph in their last six postseason games while the victory also resulted in OKC's first defeat in this year's playoff. Kevin Durant had some of the most impressive buckets on the night and he shot a team high 31 points as he lead a confident OKC team throughout the game, offensively. The free throws were tumbling in, in Game 3, with only 3 shots being missed from the line, out of 70. It was that kind of a game, where both teams were neck to neck in every department possible, with both sets of players having their hot streaks and luckily, the Lakers decided to have their surge in the final quarter.

The Miami Heat fell to their 2nd consecutive defeat in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, clearly not getting over the absence of Chirs Bosh, and being outdone by an Indiana Pacers team that score points on a collective and cohesive effort. In the other game of the night, the San Antonio Spurs made their intentions of winning the NBA ring quite clear by giving a commanding performance against the LA Clippers. Veteran coach Gregg Popovich was tactically on the money in this game and the implementation from the Spurs team was simply superb as they took a 2 - 0 lead in their series against the Clippers.

Miami Heat 75 - 94 Indiana Pacers

In the physical absence of Chris Bosh and the mental absence of Dwayne Wade, the Miami Heat relied on Lebron James to get their home advantage back from the Indiana Pacers, but instead the home team dominated on both ends of the court to take a 2-1 lead in their series with a mammoth 19 point win. Things were not going the Wade way would definitely be an unterstatement, as far as Miami was concerned. The star player had no points in the first half and managed 5 points in his 36 minutes on the floor, a ridiculous return for someone of his quality. Mario Charmers and Lebron James, both notched 20+ points, but otherwise the Heat were simply downtrodden and defeated in Game 3.