Miami is overmatched. LA needs to keep as much of this roster as possible, and work towards the repeat.
Im talking about CL, not LG. CL doesn’t exist anymore, and pretty sure most of the mod team here migrated from CL.
defense was pretty abysmal tonight. and they got lucky bam/dragic were out because they likely don't win shooting as poorly as they did need to pick it up if they want to win next game, especially with bam potentially coming back
Not sure why MIA thinks switching up zone defenses is a good strategy against this veteran Laker Team. I think they know they can't play Man to Man D against our size & Talent...
We were in control all night. They’d cut that lead we had all night down from double to single digits and then we’d just surge again and bring it back up. We are in the driver’s seat. Let’s take it home.
Exactly. Was never once worried. We just saved our energy for the end. In the 4th after a timeout LeBron seemed to just tell the guys it's go time, and boom. Formality from here on out.
Exactly how I feel. Portland: hope Dame doesn't come back Houston: hope we can keep this defense going against Harden Denver: they came back from 1-3 twice and are dangerous Heat: let's just avoid injury and end this
John is so not stressed about the finals, he doesn't even know who we are playing against. That's what I call being relaxed.
I actually think Miami is better with Olynyk on the floor versus Bam. We have an answer for Bam with Dwight or AD guarding him, and Bam doesn't stretch the floor for the HEAT so whenever Butler or Herro or anybody drives to the lane? They're met with AD or Dwight (whomever is playing the 5). WIth Olynyk, those driving lanes open up and he can drill the 3, as you saw in game 2. With Bam coming back, in this series in particular, I think it hurts the HEAT - because he's not stopping AD or a LeBron drive, and he is not going to produce for you offensively either. He's just overmatched in this series. Dragic is a loss for the HEAT for sure, but remember, our guards have faced WAY better guards than Dragic throughout the playoffs in Dame, CJ, Harden, Westbrook and Murray. I don't think Dragic was going to light us up in a way those guys could (or did), so even with Dragic in this series, I don't believe they woulda extended the series. With that said, you can see that the HEAT can still hang around as Nunn and Olynyk picked up the slack, as they have a "next man up" mentality. Butler was doing everything he could but when you're going up against the two best players in the league, it's tough to overcome that with only 23 or so points. Butler needs to go for 30+ to give the HEAT a fighting chance. As much as he likes to involve his teammates, this is the one series where him being a creator probably favors us more. He needs to be a killer and put more pressure on us - but then again, credit to our defense and we got multiple guys to throw at him in LeBron, Green, KCP, Kuzma, Morris and heck even AD. Lots of length there for Butler. With this all said, we should be wrapping this up in 4 games - and I'll just get ready for all the haters to talk s*** about our path to the finals and how easy it was and how it's because of the bubble that we won and if it was normal circumstances we wouldn't have. Next year becomes really important for us to shut the haters up and win it all in "normal" circumstances - but funny part of this is that I feel like others have said that we didn't have the advantage HCA - heck that's the reason I feel teams lik the Bucks and Clippers (yes I know) ended up losing in the way they did. I feel under normal circumstances that would not have happened. We played at a disadvantage not having our home court and home crowd while lesser teams played with less pressure and role players that usually wouldn't go off had big nights. But that's how good this Lakers team was - they can beat you in so many ways and of course, NOW all the media pundits are saying "of course the Lakers are gonna win they got LeBron and AD!" uh no, don't backtrack now with that weak a** s***!
I don't think so. Game 4 of the Denver series was the last game I was stressed. Actually, wasn't really stressed, just irriated. Denver was making every conceivable shot and they never led once the entire game. After that game I realized no one is beating the Lakers. Watching Miami and Boston play Crockets ball all series pretty much ended any shot of them being a problem in the Finals.
Hearing a lot of Injury excuses coming from Heat Fans & Laker Haters. Someone please remind them that their Team was already down by 32 points in Game one before the injuries. While you're at it, tell them that it's not a good idea to try to play bully ball with a Team that's bigger than you at every position. Almost forgot. Maybe let them know that constantly playing zone defense against a Team that has two of the best passers in Playoff History & the size to dominate you in the paint is a really bad idea.
That's an easy one to argue. 2015 Finals, Cleveland had a roster full of YMCA players for Lebron. Kyrie and Love out and he still got it to 2-1 before falling 4-2. And don't get me started on injuries for the Lakers. Lakers lost 4 finals since 1989 because of injuries in the Finals. 1989 = Magic and Byron out from Game 2 and beyond. 1991 = Worthy and Scott injured, Tony Smith was the second option with Vlade. 2004 = Fox, Fish on one leg, Malone on one leg. Horace Grant out. 2008 = Ariza and Bynum out If you have a time machine and can fix those injuries for the Lakers then, you can fix the injuries for Miami now and let's go. Truth of the matter is, even if Miami were 100% they wouldn't get more than a win anyways. And hell, give them 2. Who cares, Lakers still win the series. Its a moot point either way.
I used to care when people made excuses on why the Lakers won. Now I don't care. Get #17. Nothing else matters.
