The early favorites have some work to do if they want to win the Finals.
The Los Angeles Lakers are currently leading the Miami Heat two games to one in the NBA Finals. It seemed as if it would be a true welterweight match of a series, but that thought was destroyed almost as quickly as it was conceived.
During Game 1, the Heat lost two of their starters when center Bam Adebayo strained his shoulder and guard Goran Dragic tore his plantar fascia. The two have been out of the series since then, and no word has been released on whether either of them will be suiting up for Game 4.
With the Heat fractured, the Lakers took an early two-game lead, winning Game 1 by 18 points and Game 2 by 10 points. LeBron James and Anthony Davis ran the floor, with Davis averaging 33.0 ppg compared to James’ 29.0 ppg, respectively. Davis also averaged 1.5 blocks per game, the highest block rating out of any player in this Finals to that point. With help from other key players such Rajon Rondo and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the Lakers asserted their dominance early.
But the Heat weren’t ready to go down without a fight. Despite still missing Adebayo and Dragic, the Heat pushed through and won Game 3 by a score of 115-104. A large part of this was due to NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler, who landed a 40 point triple-double, becoming just the third player to do so in NBA Finals history. Butler’s performance electrified his team, and he believes he knows the reason why.
“We rebounded,” Butler said in his postgame interview. “That’s going to be the key going forward. We’ve got to keep those guys off the boards, limit their second-chance points. We got back pretty well. It also helps to make shots, don’t ever get me wrong, but I’m glad we get some people back.”
Butler solidified his comment on rebounds through his performance, as he not only had the most rebounds of the game with 11 but his teammates Jae Crowder and Kelly Olynyk had the third and fifth most rebounds, respectively.
The Lakers have been making the same defensive flaw throughout the three games of this series. When the Heat have the ball, they take their places on the perimeter while the Lakers play man-to-man defense. One Heat player then cuts towards the ball handler for a screen, and the player with the ball takes that opportunity and tries to dodge the Lakers. There are then two Lakers on one Heat player, leaving a second Heat player (the one who ran the screen) all alone, wide open in the key, which makes for an easy two points.
The Lakers have consistently fallen into the trap of double-teaming a man instead of sticking to their base man defense, which has resulted in them losing a handful of points because of it. The Heat have capitalized on this and continued to exploit this flaw for points.
The Heat, on the other hand, spent all of Game 3 keeping the Lakers at the perimeter with no opportunity to shoot. This forces the Lakers to rush to the basket, but the Heat crash at the same time, giving the Lakers no chance at a layup either. While the Lakers are able to adapt, the defensive strategy they have been committing to this series has failed to be effective against the Heat, particularly in Game 3.
Whether the Lakers will make the necessary changes to fight off the Heat is, much like the fate of Adebayo and Dragic, to be determined. The series will resume when Game 4 kicks off on Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 6 p.m. PST.