The Lakers entered a critical six-game stretch Saturday that could very well determine their playoff position in the competitive Western Conference postseason race.

Behind the heroics of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, the Lakers defeated Denver in a 127-125 overtime thriller at Crypto.com Arena that secured a playoff seeding tiebreaker over the Nuggets.

Doncic made an 18-foot jumper with less than a second left in overtime to secure the win. While he’ll get a lot of the credit for the outcome, the play of Austin Reaves, Deande Ayton and Marcus Smart in overtime also played a critical role.

Ayton scored four of his nine points in the overtime and Smart drilled an important three-pointer late as the Lakers (42-25) won their fifth straight game and moved back into third place in the West with 15 games remaining.

It was dueling triple-doubles between two stars, with Doncic putting up 30 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds and Nikola Jokic finishing with 24 points, 16 rebounds and 14 assists.

Reaves, who finished with 32 points, seven rebounds, six assists, forced overtime when he intentionally missed a free throw, got the rebound and scored on a floater to tie the score 118-118 with 1.9 seconds remaining. He made his first free throw with 5.2 seconds remaining.

In the overtime, Smart, who finished with 21 points, made a three-pointer off an assist from Doncic for a 125-123 lead, but Jokic responded by scoring over Ayton with 15.1 seconds left to tie the score.

With the Nuggets (41-27) on the verge of winning the season series, Doncic then scored with half a second left to give the Lakers their eighth win in nine games.

LeBron James finished with 17 points, six rebounds and five assists and Ayton grabbed nine rebounds in addition to his nine points.

President Donald Trump confirmed in a sit-down interview with boxer Jake Paul this week that he will attend the historic UFC event in Washington, D.C., scheduled for the president’s 80th birthday as part of the America 250 celebration.

Trump, a longtime supporter of the UFC, spoke about the highly anticipated event scheduled to take place on the South Lawn of the White House on June 14 that will feature two championship bouts. 

“I will,” Trump responded when asked by Paul if he will be at the event, which has been dubbed UFC Freedom 250. “It’s going to be amazing at the White House. And Dana [White] is a great guy. He’s a good fan of yours, you know. Dana is a good guy. The best. I mean, there’s nobody like him.”

Trump also spoke about the card, which was released days earlier and includes Ilia Topuria going up against Justin Gaethje for the UFC World Lightweight Championship and Alex Pereira taking on Ciryl Gane for the interim UFC Heavyweight Championship.

“[White] had the idea of staging it right at the front door of the White House. We’ll be right in the front door of the White House. And he’s got a tremendous card. I don’t even know if it’s filled out, but I just saw it and it looks like it’s going to be all top guys. They all want to fight at the White House. So it’s going to be in honor of the 250th year. It’ll be great.” 

The card also includes Sean O’Malley taking on Aiemann Zahabi, Michael Chandler squaring off against Mauricio Ruffy, Kyle Daukaus battling against Bo Nickal and Steve Garcia going up against Diego Lopes.

DANA WHITE DISMISSES NOTION WHITE HOUSE UFC EVENT WILL BE ‘TOO POLITICAL’: ‘IT’S A HISTORY-MAKING EVENT’

White said Thursday that the UFC is planning to offer 85,000 free tickets for the outdoor viewing area at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. Tickets for the South Lawn will not be sold, but instead will be comped to members of the military, ESPN reported.

Despite the location and presence of Trump, White has dismissed the notion that the event will be “too political.”

“I mean, I don’t know how it would be too political other than it’s at the White House,” he said in January during an interview with Bloomberg. “Listen, if you look back throughout history, I think [former President] George Bush was a big baseball fan, [former President Barack] Obama was an NBA fan and Trump is a UFC fan. I don’t think that any of those guys being fans made any sport too political.” 

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The UFC event is just one of the many events Trump has planned for the celebration of America’s 250th birthday. Last month, it was announced that an IndyCar race will take place in August and will be free for fans to come and watch.

Fox News Digital’s Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report. 

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Sophomore pitcher Carlos Acuna, building upon his outstanding freshman season, threw a one-hit shutout on Friday in Birmingham’s 5-0 West Valley League win over Taft.

He lost his no-hit bid when the first hitter of the seventh inning singled. He finished with seven strikeouts. In 24 innings this season, Acuna is 3-0 with 29 strikeouts, eight walks and a 1.16 earned-run average.

Cypress 14, JSerra 2: Tyler Vladic had five hits and Noah Johnson contributed five RBIs to lead Cypress.

Foothill 7, Cajon 0: Evrett Rycroft struck out two and walked none in six scoreless innings.

Huntington Beach 4, Edison 1: Tanner Brown struck out seven with no walks in six innings and Jared Grindlinger had two hits for the Oilers.

El Camino Real 6, Cleveland 1: Hudson December threw a complete game for the Royals.

Granada Hills 8, Chatsworth 5: Nicholas Penaranda finished with three hits for Granada Hills.

Villa Park 6, La Habra 1: Jack McGuire struck out 10 and threw 6 2/3 innings for Villa Park.

Garfield 3, Venice 2: The Bulldogs scored a run in the ninth on an error to break a 2-2 deadlock. Michael Santillan had three hits for Garfield.

Bell 11, Palisades 3: David Gonzalez had a home run and three RBIs for 10-1 Bell.

Palos Verdes 3, Mira Costa 1: Kai Van Scoyoc struck out nine in 4⅓ innings to lead Palos Verdes.

Fountain Valley 6, Los Alamitos 2: Ethan Cortez had a two-run single for Fountain Valley.

Marina 5, Newport Harbor 4: Three hits from Elijah Herald helped Marina hand Newport Harbor its first loss.

Santa Margarita 19, Los Osos 9: Brody Schumaker drove in seven runs on four hits, including a home run and double.