Final Score: MIA 98 LAL 116 - Lakers Lead 1-0
Welcome in to the full recap of Game 1 of the 2020 NBA Finals. The Lakers overcome an early 13-point deficit and never looked back. LeBron, AD, and the rest of the supporting cast helped the Lakers cruise past the Heat to a 98-116 shellacking to take Game 1 in this series.
One down, three more to go. Miami showed no fear at the start of the game. The 2-3 zone was effective early on. It got the Lakers off rhythm and they got off to a good start offensively to take the early 23-10 lead in the first quarter. The Lakers had to take two timeouts during that quarter to get things settled. They get a much needed spark from KCP. KCP knocked down back-to-back threes to get the Lakers within 7 points. From then on, they went on a 19-3 run to close at the quarter. The impressive part is that most of the points they've accumulated on that spurt, LeBron was taking his normal rest on the bench. Miami last saw the lead at the 7:33 mark of the 2nd quarter off a 3-point bucket from Tyler Herro. After that, it was all Lakers with AD and LeBron doing most of the damage.
Big ups to the supporting cast for showing up tonight. I said it in my preview, they must step up if the Lakers want to beat the 2-3 zone, which is the staple of the Heat defense. Which means they gotta be active, get to their spots, and also knock down their threes. They did that tonight. They started shooting an efficient 11-17 from threes. KCP as I mentioned started that with the back-to-back threes to let the Lakers shake off some Game 1 Finals jitters. He finished with 13 points, 2 steals, and 1 block. Danny Green was also big on both ends with 11 points, 2 steals, and 3 blocks. Kyle Kuzma may have struggled in scoring, but he crashed the boards with 8 points. What won't show up on the stats sheet is how good of a job he did defending the rookie stud, Tyler Herro. Every time those two matched up, Kuz got the better of Herro with his size and length. Dwight Howard, also didn't have a lot of eye-opening numbers, but he did his job in crashing the boards for 2nd chance points and playing unselfish basketball finding a cutting AD twice for easy dunks. Alex Caruso lead the bench in scoring with 10 points. Markieff Morris followed with 8 points. And Rajon Rondo added with 7 points and 4 assists. We're gonna need this group to be consistent if the Lakers are serious on taking home the title.
It was not a bad debut for Anthony Davis in his first NBA Finals game. He might've been jittery at the start, but he overcame those same jitters by piling up 34 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. As I said, he's going to have to come up big once again. Outside of Bam Adebayo, the Heat have nobody else to check him because they are notorious for playing small ball. Once Bam went out of the game, the Heat simply just had no answer for a very aggressive and active AD. As for LeBron, he got the better of his former team on this one. He finished with 25 points, 13 rebounds, and 9 assists. He was 1 assist shy of yet another triple-double in the finals. And he took the assignment of shadowing Jimmy Butler early on, which is to be expected. You always want to see a team's best player defend the opposition's best, especially in the biggest stage like these NBA Finals.
Despite the dominant win, I have one negative I want to call out and it's been a habit all season long. When the Lakers build up a big lead, they let their foot off the gas and make the scoreboard as respectable than indicated. The 4th quarter this game was supposed to be garbage time. Unfortunately, LeBron and AD have to keep playing until 1:23 left in the 4th when it's all said and done. If you're Frank Vogel, you don't want your two superstars to play unnecessary minutes when the opposition has been thoroughly outplayed up to the 4th. The Heat had the injury bug bite them tonight with Jimmy Butler sustaining ankle injury, Goran Dragic with a foot, and Bam Adebayo with a shoulder. Yet in some spurts, the Heat have cut the deficit and LeBron and AD have to play extended minutes to restore order and completely seal this game. I don't want to see LeBron and AD continue to play until the 1:23 mark of the 4th quarter when the Lakers already got this one in the bag. The last thing we want to see is an unnecessary injury in garbage time. Or if you can call it that because they let their guard down for a bit. I would call that the only blemish for this game and the supporting cast involved even though the entire team played great.
Overall, great win tonight. The Lakers were active and moving around, blowing up the Heat's zone defense. It's unfortunate on the injuries concerning Butler, Dragic, and Adebayo. As a fan, you don't want injuries on the opposition to be a blemish on your team's championship. But, then again they're part of the game and it's a "next man up" mentality. The Lakers flexed tonight under the LeBron's leadership. That man has been through the ups and downs in all 10 of his NBA Finals appearances and the Lakers have answered the call tonight. There's no question Erik Spoelstra and the Heat will make adjustments for next game. That tends to be the pattern in every series the Lakers have been in thus far throughout this postseason.
I remember in 2009 when the Lakers dominated the Magic, Kobe Bryant said in his postgame regarding how the Magic would respond after one game in the finals: "this is nothing to them. We just gotta forget about this game and move on to the next one." That has to be the Lakers' mentality. They bullied the Heat this game. But it's only one game and you have to anticipate that they'll bounce back in a big way. Enjoy the win now. Forget it tomorrow and move onto Game 2. They have three more to go to capture that 17th title. I'll see you guys later.
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