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

LeBron James scored 28 points as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets to set up a Western Conference semifinal playoff berth against the reigning NBA champion 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 victory over the Rockets.

The Lakers had led the series 3-0 and eventually concluded the best-of-seven contest convincingly away at Houston, whose top scorer was Amen Thompson with 18 points.

“Obviously not a lot of our players have been in that position, especially away from home in difficult situations, so it was important for me to go out there and set the tone,” said James, 41.

“Throughout my career, no matter what my role has been, my mission has always remained the same – to go out there and try to dominate,” he told Amazon Prime.

“Obviously, I have the most experience on the team and the most playoff experience on the team, so I know how a series is going to go. I’m just trying to convey that to them, instill their confidence and tell them to go out and play.”

Lakers coach JJ Redick was filled with admiration for the performance of James, who became the first player to play in 23 consecutive NBA seasons and was also the league’s record scoring scorer.

“To me, he had the best career of any NBA player,” Redick said. “You can argue all you want; I don’t care about making assumptions about who is the greatest of all time.

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

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

The first game of the seven-game series will be played in Oklahoma on Tuesday.