That’s all for tonight and the longest NBA season ever played. Thanks for following along with us and be sure to check out the full report here.
“I have always believed in LeBron James,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel says. “He’s the greatest player the basketball universe has ever seen, and if you think you know, you don’t know, OK, until you’re around him every day, you’re coaching him, you’re seeing his mind, you’re seeing his adjustments, seeing the way he leads the group. You think you know; you don’t know.
“It’s just been a remarkable experience coaching him and seeing him take this group that was not in the playoffs last year, the roster was put together, you know, overnight, and just taking a group and leading us to the promised land, so they say. He was terrific the entire season leading us, and I can’t say enough about him.”
Asked to offer specific examples of what sets LeBron apart, Vogel says: “It literally happened every day.
“Every day we’re in film and we’re talking about our team. Every day I talk to him before practice or before a game, this is what I’m feeling about the team, this is the direction I think we can go, I think we can move the needle some in this direction.
“You know, decisiveness is an incredible quality to have, and to have his mind and be able to use him as a resource to, partner with him, the things I’m seeing on tape, believing in, with his mind, to collaborate with the decisions on how to move forward with our group, it’s just -- I don’t know if there’s one or two instances that you can point to. But just every damn day in film, you know, he’s leading the charge with getting our team better. I don’t think people can undervalue that.”
“I wish I could’ve done it for the city, I wish I could’ve done it for my teammates,” says Jimmy Butler, who became the first player with multiple triple-doubles of 35 or more points in an NBA finals. “We’re trending in the right direction. We’re going to learn from this. We’re going to get better. We’re going to come back. We’re going to come back. We’ll be back. That’s what we’re all saying in that locker room. We got guys that want to do it. We got guys that already want to get back in the gym and get to working at this thing. That’s what we do here.”
Butler averaged 29.0 points, 10.2 assists, 8.6 rebounds and and 2.6 steals through five games but failed to even come close to those numbers in tonight’s Game 6, finishing with 12 points on only 10 shots.
“I didn’t win, so none of the stats matter,” he says. “We don’t play for stats here. We don’t play for anything else except for the win. I didn’t do that. I didn’t do my job.. I’ll be better, along with everybody else. I’ll be better coming back. You sulk on this because of what could have been, but it didn’t happen. We didn’t win, and that’s what you leave this at.”
“We didn’t get the final result that we wanted,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra says during his post-game Zoom conferrence. “But even what I mentioned to the guys, these are going to be lifetime memories that we have together. This locker room, regardless of whatever happens in the future, we’re going to remember this year, this season, this
experience and that locker room brotherhood for the rest of our lives.
“You’re in this business to be able to be around people like this. And I can go on and on. But the guys that competed and played in this series, we had several guys that were not even close to being a 100%. Probably shouldn’t have been playing, but that’s how this group was. They wanted to do it for each other. And I just, I’m really bummed that we couldn’t find a way to get over the hump and finish the season with a win. But that’s taking nothing away from the Lakers, they played great and particularly tonight.”
Asked to comment specifically on Jimmy Butler, who did so much to carry Miami in the series, Spoelstra is to the point.
“Jimmy has a superstar competitive spirit to him,” he says. “If you try to evaluate him or put him in a conventional box of how you view a modern-day basketball player, you’re totally missing the boat on JB. He is a winner, he is a leader, he is a motivator, a mentor and just a supreme competitor. And when you get to this level, I think so many people forget about that, the competition and what you can bring out of an entire franchise when you’re wired to that level of fierce competitiveness.”
Vanessa Bryant remembered her husband and daughter after Lakers won the NBA title on Sunday night.
Kobe and Gianna Bryant were killed in a helicopter crash along with seven others in January, and the Lakers had dedicated their season to their former player, who won five titles with Los Angeles during a glittering 20-year career.
Vanessa Bryant posted a photo of her husband and Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka to an Instagram story after the Lakers clinched their 17th title with a 106-93 victory over the Miami Heat.
“Congratulations Uncle P! Congratulations @Lakers Kobe was right … ‘stay the course- block out the noise,’” wrote Vanessa Bryant. She added: “Wish Kobe and Gianna were here to see this.” Gianna, who was 13 when she died, was a talented player herself and many had tipped her as a future star in the WNBA.
Here’s the full report off tonight’s championship-clinching victory.
LeBron: 'I want my damn respect, too'
“We just want our respect,” LeBron James says as he receives the NBA finals MVP trophy. “(General manager Rob Pelinka) wants his respect. Coach Vogel wants his respect. Our organizations wants their respect. Laker Nation wants their respect. And I want my damn respect, too.”
"I want my damn respect too."
— ESPN (@espn) October 12, 2020
–LeBron James 👑 pic.twitter.com/yswlex0U8M
Updated
LeBron James has been named NBA finals Most Valuable Player
This is James’ fourth time winning the award. He averaged 29.8 points (on 59% shooting), 11.8 rebounds and 8.5 assists in the six-game series. Here’s how those numbers compare to the previous three times he won it.
- 2016: 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 49 FG%
- 2013: 25.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 45 FG%
- 2012: 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 47 FG%
Final: Los Angeles 106-93 Miami
The Lakers have won 106-93 over the Heat in Game 6 to capture the 2020 NBA championship. They’re mobbing each other at half court with LeBron in the middle of the madness as confetti rains down. Los Angeles have won a 17th NBA title, going level with the Boston Celtics for most in league history.
Los Angeles 97-75 Miami; 4.14, fourth quarter
The Lakers are only a couple of possessions away from closing this one out. LeBron James has recorded his 11th career NBA finals triple-double with 24 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. Magic Johnson is second on the all-time list with eight ahead of Golden State’s Draymond Green (three). No one else has more than two.
Los Angeles 90-69 Miami; 8.37, fourth quarter
The Heat get baskets frorm Adebayo, Herro and Kelly Olynyk during a scoring burst that cuts the Lakers’ lead from 36 to 21. Frank Vogel calls a timeout to get his team settled.
Updated
End of third quarter: Los Angeles 87-58 Miami
The Lakers are 12 minutes away from their first title in a decade as the domination continues. Rajon Rondo has 19 points (and is plus-21) off the bench on 8-for-9 shooting from the floor.
Los Angeles 79-46 Miami; 4.10, second quarter
Lakers in total control with about 16 minutes to the final buzzer and a record-tying 17th NBA championship.
Los Angeles 71-43 Miami; 6.38, second quarter
One way traffic. Three Lakers are tied for the game-high with 15 points:
- James: 15 points, 10 rebounds, six assists
- Davis: 15 points, seven rebounds, two blocked shots
- Caldwell-Pope: 15 points, two rebounds
Los Angeles 69-37 Miami; 9.29, third quarter
Danny Green drains a three from the elbow to push the Lakers’ advantage to 32 points. Los Angeles are shooting 52% from the field and completely smothering Miami (31% from the floor) on the other end. Total domination.
The Lakers’ 28-point advantage is the second-widest half-time lead in NBA finals history. The largest was Game 1 of the 1985 NBA finals, the so-called Memorial Day Massacre, where the Boston Celtics led 79-49 over the Lakers at the break en route to a 148-114 win.
Half-time: Los Angeles 58-34 Miami
Nunn puts down a lay-up on Miami’s final possession of the first half but the Heat trail by 28 points after the Lakers’ second-quarter avalanche. LeBron is leading the way for Los Angeles with 11 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
Los Angeles 58-34 Miami; 49.6, second quarter
Caldwell-Pope hits back-to-back threes coming out of the timeout and the Lakers have pushed the lead to 30. Miami barely showing a pulse.
Los Angeles 58-34 Miami; 2.57, second quarter
The game has completely gotten away from Miami after a Davis dunk, a Caldwell-Pope two and a Caruso fast-break lay-up off a James assist in quick succession. The Lakers are pouring it on and Miami simply have no answer.
Los Angeles 51-34 Miami; 2.57, second quarter
Butler misses one of two foul shots. Then Adebayo misses two of two freebies on the next possession. The Heat have missed seven free throws tonight after shooting so well throughout the series. Just devastating.
Los Angeles 51-32 Miami; 4.01, second quarter
The Lakers are playing championship defense, completely shutting down Miami on the offensive end. Caldwell-Pope converts an old-fashioned three-point play on the other end. A lazy turnover by Nunn then results in Davis getting fouled while shooting on the other end. Davis drains both attempts and he’s now 27-for-27 from the line in the finals (and has made his last 38 in the playoffs). The Heat need something here, desperately, to keep this one from running away from them.
Los Angeles 42-27 Miami; 6.16, second quarter
Butler drains a 12ft floater but Caruso answers with a tip bucket on the other end and Rondo hits another after a few empty possessions to push the Laker lead to 15.
Los Angeles 35-23 Miami; 10.00, second quarter
Butler makes one of two free throws and Miami have already missed four shots from the line tonight after shooting 88% for the series, including 21-for-22 in Game 5 (and 8-for-8 in the fourth quarter). Rondo answers with a three-pointer on the other end and the veteran point guard has nine points in six minutes off the bench. Both sides make swiches as Herro returns for Nunn and Caruso (curiously) comes in for the red-hot Rondo. The Lakers are ahead by double digits for the first time tonight, then a LeBron bucket pushes the lead to 12 and the Heat call a timeout.
End of first quarter: Los Angeles 28-20 Miami
Miami guard Goran Dragić, the Heat’s second-leading scorer in the playoffs, has checked in after missing the past four games since suffering a foot injury in Game 1. Adebayo hits one of two free throws after getting fouled on a shot attempt, but LeBron answers with an old-fashioned with an old-fashioned three-point play to finsih the opening period with an eight-point lead.
The Lakers are 10-0 on transition points so far and LeBron has nine points, five rebounds and three assists already.
Los Angeles 25-19 Miami; 1.22, first quarter
Anthony Davis, who’s averaged 30.3 points in games following a Lakers loss throughout the playoffs, throws down a dunk out of the timeout. Then Rondo makes a lay-up and Davis flushes another dunk off a LeBron assist. The 6-0 run makes it 23-16, Los Angeles. Butler then opens his account with a three pointer, but Davis answers with a stepback jumper from 18ft on the ensuing possession for a six-point lead.
Los Angeles 17-16 Miami; 3.22, first quarter
Miami’s Jae Crowder is fouled while attempting a three out of the timeout and calmly drains all three shots to draw the Heat closer. Herro deposits a driving lay-up in their next possession and the Heat are level at 13-all. The Lakers nose in front with baskets by Rajon Rondo (off a nifty LeBron assist) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, but Kendrick Nunn makes his presence felt after checking in for Herro with a 26ft three to close the Lakers’ lead to 17-6. Notably, the Lakers have been throwing double-teams at Butler all night and he’s attempted only one shot.
Los Angeles 13-8 Miami; 6.18, first quarter
The Lakers’ Anthony Davis opens with a 19ft jumper and Miami’s Bam Adebayo answers with an alley-oop dunk off a Tyler Herro assist gets on the next possession. LeBron follows with a dunk and driving lay-up after a few empty possessions to give the Lakers a 6-2 lead. Miami’s Duncan Robinson makes a pair of threes – a promising sign given how crucial his playoff career-high 26 points were in Game 5 – but Danny Green answers with three from tthe cormner and a LeBron James two on the following possession pushes the Los Angeles lead to 13-8 and prompts Miami coach Erik Spoelstra to call a timeout.
Updated
Alex Caruso is in the starting lineup in place of Dwight Howard. It’s the first start of the postseason for third-year point guard. The players are on the court for the opening tip and we should be under way momentarily.
Updated
Good evening and welcome to tonight’s Game 6 of the NBA finals between the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers. We’re back in the NBA’s Walt Disney World bubble after Friday night’s tooth-and-nail battle which saw the fifth-seeded Eastern Conference champions survive to live another day against the heavily favored LeBron James-Anthony Davis package. The Lakers came within seconds of winning their record-setting 17th NBA title, but Danny Green’s potential title-clinching three missed the mark and we’re back for another game with the Lakers holding a three-games-to-two lead in the best-of-seven championship series.
Tip-off is roughly 15 minutes away.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s why you probably had a better weekend than Lakers veteran Danny Green.
