Welcome in to the full recap. The Miami Heat live to fight another day as they scratched and clawed to a 111-108 win. They prevent the Lakers from celebrating a 17th title tonight.
I'm gonna sound like a Debbie downer throughout this post. So bear with me.
WE WERE SO CLOSE!
The finish of that game really hurt. If you're an NBA fan, definitely this was a game for the ages. Especially when the Lakers rallied, both these teams exchanged bucket after bucket. And it set up a thrilling finish at the end.
But if you're a Laker fan, like I am, I feel like my heart just shattered into a thousand pieces after seeing that final possession. They just needed one bucket. Heat had no timeouts and had to go the length the court. And they came up empty handed.
In all fairness, kudos to the Miami Heat. This has been their M.O. throughout the postseason. They haven't been in a 3-1 hole and as I mentioned last game, I expected them to come out as the more desperate team. And they did just that. Jimmy Butler stepped up when he needed to. 35 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists, 5 steals. He's one of the best two-way players for a reason. But, the main killer this game was Duncan Robinson. He has been a consistent double-figure scorer this postseason, but this kid had the game of his life tonight. 27 points and shot a scorching hot 7-13 from 3s. He made a couple of four-point play opportunities from those. Kendrick Nunn also stepped up with 14 points off the bench. He literally was the bench as Miami went with a 7-man rotation tonight.
Now onto the Lakers, total wasted effort tonight. It's been awhile since I've been this disappointed. LeBron James laid it all on the line out there with 40 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals. He was smoking the race for Finals MVP. He played throughout the entire 4th quarter.
Wasted.
Anthony Davis, bad heel and all, doing it on both ends of the floor with 28 points, 12 rebounds, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. He was hobbled during those final seconds and still willed himself in true Mamba Mentality fashion to finish the game.
Wasted.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had another big game. He finished with 16 points on 6-15 shooting. He gave the Lakers back their first lead with a three at the 6:20 mark and had another big bucket to put them up by three.
Wasted. Wasted all because of a botched final possession. LeBron made a play, got the Heat defense to gravitate towards him. Danny Green is all alone at the top, had a wide open look and he missed it. Markieff Morris had the rebound, he had LeBron open at the wing, but opted to force a pass inside to AD. Out of bounds. Heat basketball. The Lakers lose for the first time in the Mamba jerseys.
The supporting cast outside of KCP, Rondo, and Dwight with the limited minutes he had were such a huge letdown. I've defended Kyle Kuzma all postseason long. But, he was garbage tonight. 'Kieff was a non-factor tonight. Alex Caruso also didn't make too much of an impact. Danny Green, I could care less if he was +8 on the floor. As if he can't disappoint us more enough offensively in these playoffs. He had the chance to be the Lakers' John Paxson in 1993 and erase everything we've said about him throughout. But, nope same old Danny Green. Seriously, "how many more" threes are you gonna miss? Huge letdown.
I got nothing more to say. They lost in the Mamba jerseys. Just drop the show now. You only win once with them every round. As I mentioned, I had this series go six, but the way the Lakers dropped the ball tonight, I have never been this disappointed to see my prediction come true. If Miami won by 15, I wouldn't have any problem. But, it was such a close game that met a disappointing finish, especially when LeBron and AD were giving it everything they got. It's a wait and see on Sunday. We'll be refreshing the news feed on AD's aggravated heel injury. But, the Lakers gotta look back at this and come out in Game 6 with a lot of anger. The Heat were more aggressive tonight. It's a must that the Lakers respond in kind, especially after a letdown like this. I'll see you guys later.
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