Jimmy Butler turned in another triple-double, and scored 8 clutch points in the final 2 minutes to lead the Heat to a 111-108 win. Butler finished with 35 points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds, 5 steals and a block in a whopping 47 minutes of action. Duncan Robinson added 26 points, and finally got hot from 3, going 7-for-13 from deep. The Lakers were led by LeBron James (40 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, 15-for-21 shooting, 6-for-9 on 3’s), Anthony Davis (28 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks, 9-for-15 shooting, 8-for-8 free throws), and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (16 points).
The Lakers once again started with Anthony Davis defending Jimmy Butler after Davis was able to limit Butler in Game 4. With Davis once again sagging off and going way under on screens, Butler adjusted by taking more midrange shots. Butler hit 5 of his 7 midrange attempts on the night.
After the Laker starters got out to an early 18-13 lead, Miami responded with a 12-4 run as LeBron went to the bench for his 1st quarter rest. The Laker bench was unable to keep the ship afloat when either James or Davis rested tonight. Meanwhile, Miami shortened their rotation to 7, using only Kendrick Nunn and Andre Iguodala off the bench. Both Heat bench players made an impact, with Iguodala providing his usual stingy defense. Coming into the series I expected Iguodala to spend time harassing LeBron James, but instead it’s been Davis who has had to deal with Iguodala’s endlessly relentless active hands.
The Heat led 25-24 at the end of the 1st quarter. As Davis rested to start the 2nd, Miami went on a 13-6 run to take an 8-point lead. Kendrick Nunn provided a spark with 7 points during that run, and the Lakers had difficulty containing him off of dribble hand-offs with Jimmy Butler.
Nunn gave the Heat 14 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists tonight in 27 minutes. This is really the first time the Heat have gotten anything out of Nunn this series, so you can see why Heat fans think how different this series might be with a healthy Goran Dragic. That type of production is something of a baseline for what you’d expect out of Dragic.
The Lakers were able to cut into the lead thanks to an 8-0 run that included 3 consecutive transition opportunities that they converted for layups. They finished the half with 15 fast break points, and trailed 60-56 heading into the 2nd half. The Lakers opened the half with Dwight Howard (who also started), unlike Game 4 when we saw Markieff Morris instead. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Howard didn’t play at all tonight, after the Lakers gave him a short leash in Game 4. But after tonight, I would be surprised if we see him again moving forward. Miami’s shooting and movement just makes this a tough matchup for Howard (or any center, as we saw in the Eastern Conference Finals with Boston’s Daniel Theis). After an early miscommunication on defense led to an open 3 for Jae Crowder, LeBron yells at him, “I TOLD YOU NOT TO GUARD CROWDER!” Poor Dwight.
On the offensive end, the Lakers started the 2nd half hot from 3, hitting 5 of their first 7 attempts to help them keep it close. LeBron hit 2 of his 6 3’s on the night during that stretch, with the Heat once again going way under on screens and daring him to shoot. After those 3’s were about the only thing keeping the offense afloat to start the 3rd, the Lakers finally found a way to get the ball inside to Davis. We haven’t seen this much throughout the series, but an early seal in transition is a good way to get easy points for Davis (or theoretically Howard as well).
The Lakers rode LeBron and AD hard in the 2nd half, with LeBron getting just a 2 minute rest at the end of the 3rd and Davis getting 1:29 at the start of the 4th. Each player finished with 42 minutes on the night, and the Lakers were -7 in those few minutes of 2nd half rest for their stars. They trailed by their largest margin by the time both were back in the game for the final stretch (93-82, with 10:31 remaining). From there, the Lakers went on a 15-3 run capped off by another huge 3 from KCP.
LeBron’s basketball genius was on full display there. Danny Green looks like he’s open in the opposite corner, but Crowder is actually leaning towards making that rotation. LeBron reads that and fires a bullet to KCP instead, forcing a Heat timeout and giving the Lakers their first lead since the 1st quarter (97-96, 6:20 remaining).
The final 6 minutes were utterly nerve-racking. The Lakers came up with a stifling defensive possession out of the timeout, and then stops on each of their next 3 possessions. Unfortunately the offense wasn’t able to capitalize, with 2 missed 3’s by Danny Green and one by Davis. Green did redeem himself after air-balling one of those 3’s by coming up with a back-tap on Jimmy Butler that led to an easy transition hoop for KCP. Danny Green is a master at those back-taps (this one from Game 4 was one I wanted to highlight but didn’t get to).
After those 4 initial stops, the Heat finally broke through with a transition alley-oop layup by Bam Adebayo and an open Duncan Robinson 3 to retake the lead 101-99. Both plays broke open after Laker players had crashed into each other. With the game up for grabs, LeBron James and Jimmy Butler went mano a mano. The play-by-play from the 3:16 mark: LeBron ties it with 2 free throws (101-101). Butler misses a floater. LeBron sets up an open KCP 3 (miss). Butler hits a one-dribble pull-up from 20 feet to retake the lead (103-101). LeBron drives past Crowder for a bucket and-1 (104-103, Lakers lead). Butler gets Markieff Morris in a switch and hits a turnaround fadeaway (105-104, Heat). LeBron bully balls his way past Butler in the post, misses, and puts it back in (106-105, Lakers). Butler drives past AD and gets fouled (hits both free throws, 107-106, Heat). Heat timeout with 46 seconds remaining. Phew. Butler looked exhausted.
With the Lakers trailing by 1, the Heat forced the ball out of James’ hands with a double-team in the post. LeBron kicked it out to KCP who air-balled a 3, but Davis was right there with the put-back (108-107, Lakers lead with 22 seconds remaining). The Lakers were one defensive stand away from a title. They could not get it.
I’m not sure I’d trust Markieff Morris over Danny Green for one final defensive stop. Maybe the appeal is that you can possibly switch Morris onto Butler. But there’s no way a simple ball screen should result in a wide open lane for Butler. After Butler made both free throws, the Lakers now needed one basket for the title. They got a wide open look.
We’ve seen LeBron pass up the shot on the final possession before and take heaps of criticism for it. This was the right play, but the pass was a little off-target. Danny Green was wide open.
Some may look at the final minutes of this game and say that Jimmy Butler outdueled LeBron James. That’s fine, but credit also has to go to the Heat as a team for forcing the ball out of LeBron’s hands. The Lakers may need to figure out ways to do the same against Butler. We still haven’t seen any traps or double-teams against Butler isolations, probably because the Lakers don’t want to leave Miami’s shooters.
Miami didn’t hold back anything in this game, shortening their rotation to 7 and playing Jimmy Butler all but 48 seconds of the game. The Lakers had their chances tonight, but couldn’t bring it home. With Davis hobbling near the end of the game after tweaking an ankle, you never know whether those chances will slip away. After coming so close, the defensive breakdowns, the fouls on 3-point shots, the missed open shots are all magnified. The most obvious adjustment the Lakers have left is to cut Howard from the rotation (or at least align his minutes with times when the Heat have less shooting on the floor). But the Lakers’ margin for error only shrinks the longer this series goes. Game 6 is Sunday. And Miami’s title hopes are still very much alive.
Lakers Box Score Breakdown 