Lakers Face Heat In Game 2 of Finals, Up 1-0
The Los Angeles Lakers face the Miami Heat in Game 2 of the NBA Finals in Orlando on Friday.
The Lakers are up in the series, 1-0.
The Heat (0-1) have had an amazing journey up until this point but Game 1 is hopefully not a sign of things to come. Murphy's Law was the rule in that game, with everything going wrong for Miami. It would be one thing to get blown out but it's another when you lose two of your best players. Those happen to be Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic, with Adebayo dealing with a shoulder issue and Dragic limping off the court because of a foot injury. Miami already had a hard time matching up with this team with those two on the court and it's pretty obvious that they need both guys to make a full recovery rather quickly if the Heat are going to make this thing competitive.
The Lakers (2-0) ended up winning Game 1, 116-98, but it was much more lopsided than that. Los Angeles actually led by 17 points at the half and by 26 points going into the final quarter. The lead actually got to 32 points at times in the second half, with Miami never getting the game within a single-digit margin. Where the Lakers really dominated was down low, out-rebounding the Heat, 54-36. That's what you expect to see from a big team like this and it looks even better when you consider that Los Angeles went 25-of-27 from the free-throw line while Miami connected on just 11-of-14. If these trends continue with LeBron James and Anthony Davis combining for 59 points, 22 rebounds and 14 assists like they did in Game 1, this series could be over rather quickly.
Game 3 will be on Tuesday.
The Lakers are up in the series, 1-0.
The Heat (0-1) have had an amazing journey up until this point but Game 1 is hopefully not a sign of things to come. Murphy's Law was the rule in that game, with everything going wrong for Miami. It would be one thing to get blown out but it's another when you lose two of your best players. Those happen to be Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic, with Adebayo dealing with a shoulder issue and Dragic limping off the court because of a foot injury. Miami already had a hard time matching up with this team with those two on the court and it's pretty obvious that they need both guys to make a full recovery rather quickly if the Heat are going to make this thing competitive.
The Lakers (2-0) ended up winning Game 1, 116-98, but it was much more lopsided than that. Los Angeles actually led by 17 points at the half and by 26 points going into the final quarter. The lead actually got to 32 points at times in the second half, with Miami never getting the game within a single-digit margin. Where the Lakers really dominated was down low, out-rebounding the Heat, 54-36. That's what you expect to see from a big team like this and it looks even better when you consider that Los Angeles went 25-of-27 from the free-throw line while Miami connected on just 11-of-14. If these trends continue with LeBron James and Anthony Davis combining for 59 points, 22 rebounds and 14 assists like they did in Game 1, this series could be over rather quickly.
Game 3 will be on Tuesday.