Good morning, everyone. Welcome to first things first.

Jenna Wolf, Nick Wright, Brenda Marshall, Kevin Wilds.

We all sat down early this morning so I could give you one word, two syllables.

This is for you, my friend, Nick.

Ron Doe, Ron Doe showed up last night, made Nick happy. I'm sure.

Wildless thrill, Brandon is as well. And that is where we start this morning. Game three last

night between the Lakers and the Rockets and Ray Jean Ronda, Nick finished 21 and 9. He showed up.

And while both Hardin and Russ did have big games, we talked about which one. It turned out it was both, but it wasn't enough because it wasn't as big as LeBron James.

36 points for the King and a bevy of highlights. Lakers get the win. They take a two one series lead

for LeBron, a milestone night. He becomes the NBA's all-time leader in playoff wins with

162. That passes Derek Fisher. So Nick, though, let's get back to this game. So what did you

make of the Lakers

taking a lead for the first time in this series over the Houston Rockets? Oh, this was a monster

win for the Lakers and it took a monster LeBron James performance. Those 29 first half points,

that's the most points he has scored in a half

of a playoff game since the single biggest, most important and arguably best game of his

entire career, the 45, 15, and 5 in 2012 in game 6 in Boston with the entire Miami blueprint on

the line. That was his first half. And in the second half,

you almost felt bad for Houston. LeBron seemed to be taking out his very deserved frustration

of once again being snubbed on an all defensive team by being the best defensive player alive

for at least a quarter of basketball in that third quarter

when he just kept punching rocket shots all about the crowd.

...