LeBron James and Anthony Davis combined for 65 points to lead the Lakers to a 124-114 win over a depleted Heat squad. Miami played without All-Star big man Bam Adebayo and their leading scorer in the playoffs, Goran Dragic. In their absence, the Heat were led by Jimmy Butler, who finished with 25 points, 13 assists, and 8 rebounds. Kelly Olynk added 24 points and 9 rebounds off the bench and Tyler Herro had 17 points and 7 rebounds while starting in place of Dragic.
The Lakers opened the game on a 14-8 run, scoring nearly all of their points in the paint. The Heat then switched to their zone defense in the hopes of forcing more outside shots. The Lakers obliged, shooting 27 first half 3-point attempts, their most in a half all playoffs. After their hot shooting first half in Game 1, they continued to come back down to earth, going just 9-for-27 from 3 in the first half of Game 2. Their first half shot chart looks like what you typically see from the Houston Rockets.
While over half of the Lakers’ shots came from 3-point range in the first half, they weren’t just passing the ball around the perimeter and chucking from deep. They clearly had a game plan in how they wanted to attack the zone. They tried to get the ball into the middle, similar to the few zone possessions we saw last game. But we also saw more of LeBron James and Anthony Davis occupying the short corners tonight, trying to get behind the zone.
The Heat hung around late in the 2nd quarter, trailing by as little as 4 before the Lakers closed the half on a 19-9 run. Rajon Rondo played a key role in that run, highlighted by back-to-back alley-oops to set up LeBron James and Anthony Davis for easy layups. He was able to find different ways to be effective against the zone throughout the night, and also continued his hot shooting from 3, going 3-for-4 from deep. He finished with 16 points, 10 assists and just 1 turnover, and was regularly able to get the ball in the middle of the zone with his passing.
With the Lakers leading 68-54 to start the 2nd half, Miami came out with their man-to-man defense before quickly switching back to zone after 3 consecutive Laker baskets. The zone didn’t do much to slow the Lakers down though, as Davis and James opened the half shooting a combined 7-for-7. Davis then followed that up with 3 straight offensive rebound put-backs that put the Lakers up 92-74. Preventing offensive rebounding is always a challenge with any zone, but especially so with Miami trying to hide their guards at the bottom. Kendrick Nunn has no chance trying to box out AD.
Still the Laker lead was just 103-93 heading into the 4th quarter. The Heat were able to stay within striking distance thanks to Butler, Olynk, and Herro, who accounted for all of the Heat points during a 19-11 run to close the 3rd. Unfortunately for Miami, they couldn’t get the lead below 9 in the 4th quarter. Down the stretch, they never really made the Lakers feel any real game pressure. The Heat stuck with their zone, and the Lakers continued to get extra possessions off of offensive rebounds, with 4 crucial ones in the final 6 minutes of play. They finished the game with 16 offensive rebounds, 8 of them coming from Davis. These are back-breakers.
With the Heat in zone for most of the second half and giving up offensive rebound after offensive rebound to the bigger, stronger Laker players, it almost felt like the varsity squad playing against the JV team at times. LeBron finished with another near triple-double – 33 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists, and 0 turnovers. Davis had 32 points and 14 rebounds on 15-for-20 shooting. Without Adebayo and Dragic, the only question remaining in this series may be who gets Finals MVP for the Lakers, LeBron or AD? My vote through two games is for AD.
Lakers Box Score Breakdown 