OKLAHOMA CITY — Pau Gasol tipped in a missed jumper by Kobe Bryant with half a second left and the Lakers survived a late comeback effort by Oklahoma City and eliminated the Thunder 95-94 in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series Friday night.
Gasol crashed to the rim at the right block and tipped in Bryant’s shot to put the defending NBA champions ahead after they squandered a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Russell Westbrook missed a 3-pointer at the final buzzer.
Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 26 points on a dreadful 5-for-23 shooting night.
Bryant scored 32 points and Gasol had nine points and 18 rebounds, scoring his only basket of the second half at the end.
After missing 17 of his first 20 shots, Durant broke through with a 3-pointer from the right wing that ignited a 10-0 comeback by the Thunder. Westbrook followed with a jumper, and his three-point play off a putback of his own miss put Oklahoma City ahead 92-91 with 3:04 to play.
Durant added a driving layup to push the lead to three, but Oklahoma City couldn’t score again in the final 2 1/2 minutes.
Hawks 83, Bucks 69
MILWAUKEE — Jamal Crawford broke out of a slump with 24 points, Joe Johnson added 22 points and the Hawks forced a Game 7 on Sunday in Atlanta.
The Hawks outscored Milwaukee 29-11 in the third quarter to take a 15-point lead. But the Bucks made a furious comeback attempt in the last six minutes, cutting Atlanta’s lead to seven with just over five minutes left. But Josh Smith’s block on John Sal- mons with just over two minutes left helped stop the rally and the Hawks pulled away.
