NBA Finals Preview: Lakers Vs. Miami Heat
Before the NBA was paused March 11 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lakers were playing their best basketball of the season.
They had just come off big wins against the Milwaukee Bucks and the Clippers and seemingly had hit their stride at just the right time.
When everything came to a screeching halt, some feared the Lakers' championship chances had too.
LeBron James acknowledged that a long hiatus was bad for him. At age 35, would he be able to get things going at the turn of a dime again? Also, what would become of the Lakers' chemistry? Would such a close team lose their spark after months apart? How would Avery Bradley's decision to opt out to the restart because of family reasons affect the team? Oh, and considering Dwight Howard questioned whether to come to Florida until the last possible moment, would his head be in the game?
After a slow start in the seeding games, the Lakers emphatically answered those questions in the playoffs. They sailed through the first three rounds, winning each of them in just five games.
James didn't lose a beat. Anthony Davis, who had never made it past the second round of the playoffs, proved that he can be a big-time player on the largest of stages. Rajon Rondo morphed into the fabled "Playoff Rondo" everyone hoped they'd see. And Howard provided the team with bursts of energy whenever he played.
The fourth-month layoff didn't hurt the Lakers.
It helped them.
"I kind of think the hiatus was actually good for us," Davis said in a videoconference Tuesday. "It kind of just let us regroup because we had such a crazy year. The Lakers had such a crazy year. Now we want to make sure that we finish this thing off right. Our team is a team that handled adversity this year. We’ve been resilient. And now we feel like it's our jobs to finish the season off the way we wanted to start it, the same way we wanted to start it. We're four wins away from that, and it seems like it's all just come full circle."
The Lakers, who have made the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010, open their series against the Miami Heat on Wednesday at 6 p.m. PST. They're hoping to win their 17th NBA championship, tying them with the Boston Celtics for the most titles in league history.
The Heat surpassed many people's expectations this postseason.
They're the first fifth-seed to advance to The Finals since the current playoff format was put into place in 1983-94.
Even though the Lakers are favored to win the series, coach Frank Vogel said he doesn't see the Heat as underdogs.
"They're 12-3 in these playoffs, just like us," Vogel said. "They've beaten three teams -- Milwaukee, on pace for a 60-win season, and Boston and Indiana, with plus 50-win seasons. So, they've beaten three teams in these playoffs. I really don't view them that way. I think they're a great basketball team that we're going to have to play great to beat them."
James added that a few things stand out to him about the Heat, a franchise he's intimately familiar with after leading them to The Finals from 2011-2014, including two-straight championships in 2012 and 2013.
"One, how hard they play for 48 minutes, no matter if they're up, no matter if they're down," James said. "They play extremely hard. And I think two, it would be the way they move off the ball, they share the ball. Everyone is live on the floor. There's not one guy that you can disrespect or be off throughout the course of an offensive possession. And they do a hell of a job of moving without the ball, sharing the ball, cutting, passing. Those are two things that stand out."
Jimmy Butler, in his first season with the Heat, has excelled. And the team has also gotten big contributions from its extremely talented young core in Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro.
Davis added that he thinks a big key to the series will be his battle against Adebayo.
"Bam is a lot like [Denver Nuggets' Nikola] Jokic," Davis said. "He handles the ball a lot, pushes them on the breaks for them, he makes great passes, scores. He's like their energy guy as well. So, it'll be fun. Two Kentucky guys. Coach Cal [John Calipari] probably texted and called me enough about that. But it's going to be a fun matchup. I know a lot of people are looking forward to that matchup...I think whoever wins that matchup, their team will probably have a better chance of winning the series."
The Heat have been overlooked all season.
But heading into The Finals, the Lakers have made it clear that they're not among those offenders.
"Miami is a special team," Davis said. "They're a team who a lot of people thought they shouldn't be here, but they're a team who fights. They're a team who's tough. They make big-time plays, got big-time players on their team, guys who are in their first year, second years who are playing huge for them right now with a lot of confidence. It's not going to be easy for us, but it's a team who very much deserves to be here. And they've shown why all season, all playoffs."
.
