You can read the full report from tonight’s game below:
Final thoughts
This was everything you could want from a NBA Finals game except for the fact that it means there might only be one more of these left. Game 5 is on Friday and, unless the Heat can make one more stand like they did in Game 3, that will be the end of maybe the most surreal NBA season in recent memory.
Well, no matter how long the series last, we’ll be here covering it at the Guardian. Thanks to everybody who followed along with today’s liveblog, especially everybody who contributed. Ciao!
Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat played a great game and had a chance to win this one even during the final minutes, but the Lakers finished strong. LeBron James and Anthony Davis were great late and they got the perfect game from Caldwell-Pope.
James is the player of the game and he gives a rather matter-of-fact interview with Rachel Nichols.
Lakers win!
Lakers 102-96 Heat, FINAL
LeBron James makes two free throws. Herro boosts his stats by hitting a meaningless three and it’s all over. The Lakers are now a game away from winning the 2020 NBA championship.
Lakers 100-93 Heat, 10.9, 4th quarter
Butler with a dunk. So it’s just seven points. The Heat get a break when Davis throws the ball out of bounds but he gets a block on the other end to make sure that it doesn’t matter. The Lakers are getting ready to dance the night away.
The Miami Heat take a timeout but unless they have a “score nine points in two possessions” play on them, I can’t really see how they’ll pull a win off here.
Lakers 100-91 Heat, 39.5, 4th quarter
And what a time for Rondo to make his first basket of the game! It’s a six point lead! That might be enough but they decide that they want more. Davis hits a three-pointer and it’s a nine point lead with less than 40 seconds left!
Lakers 95-91 Heat, 1:37, 4th quarter
It remains a shot clock violation. In any case, Robinson misses the three on the other end but Butler gets the rebound and Crowder hits a three-pointer to cut the lead to four.
Lakers 95-88 Heat, 2:02, 4th quarter
It’s Heat ball and, man, they almost get a ridiculous shot out of Adebayo but it’s ruled as a shot-clock violation. On the other end, Caldwell-Pope hits a layup but…
Wait, now they’re reviewing that Adebayo shot? After Caldwell-Pope has scored? This is awkward.
Just in case you want to, you know, actually see the shot:
KCP FROM DOWNTOWN! 🎯#NBAFinals pic.twitter.com/e73ODaWIex
— NBA UK (@NBAUK) October 7, 2020
Lakers 93-88 Heat, 2:39, 4th quarter
Jimmy Butler with a corner three to potentially give Miami the lead but it rims out which means, of course that the Lakers hit a three on their end. It’s Caldwell-Pope, of course, and it might be the biggest basket of the game. Lakers with a timeout.
Lakers 90-88 Heat, 3:39, 4th quarter
Herro draws a foul resulting in the first Heat free throws of the quarter. He makes of one of two and it’s just a two-point Lakers lead.
Lakers 90-85 Heat, 3:50, 4th quarter
Herro continues to come up big under pressure. He hits a floater to reduce the Lakers lead down to three-points. The Heat take a timeout. Could we be seeing overtime today?
Lakers 90-85 Heat, 4:37, 4th quarter
Bam Adebayo with a layup. It’s a one-possession game. The Lakers keep getting second-chance opportunities and that’s absolutely key. The Heat are getting frustrated. The result: James gets fouled again and gets to the line again where he’s perfect yet again.
Lakers 88-83 Heat, 5:33, 4th quarter
Heat called for a travel and that’s a turnover. On the Lakers side of things, James misses his attempt but Rondo’s right there to keep the possession alive which turns out to be big because LeBron gets fouled and gets to the line. I just automatically add the two points to the Lakers’ total before he’s even attempted the second.
Lakers 86-83 Heat, 6:08, 4th quarter
Jimmy Butler ties the game with a layup, to the visible annoyance of LeBron James who scores on the other end AND picks up a foul from Crowder. Of course he makes the free throw.
Lakers 83-81 Heat, 7:00, 4th quarter
Good news: Davis is staying in the game. Better news: to prove it he dunks a KCP pass.
Wow, Duncan Robinson with a long three. This might be going down to the wire here.
Lakers 81-78 Heat, 7:39, 4th quarter
Morris misses for the Lakers and Herro tries a three-pointer again. This one is good but Anthony Davis is down and in pain. The medical staff goes to check on him as the Lakers take an injury timeout.
Lakers 81-78 Heat, 7:39, 4th quarter
Lakers defense is absolutely stifling out of the Heat timeout. They force a tough three from Herro that’s absolutely hopeless.
Lakers 81-75 Heat, 8:46, 4th quarter
LeBron James hits just an entirely impossible shot while being absolutely attacked by this tenacious Heat defense. They did everything they could but it was no use. The Lakers lead is six points and Miami calls a timeout.
Lakers 79-75 Heat, 9:34, 4th quarter
It’s taken a little over three quarters but Herro connects on a three. That could be good news for Miami if he’s heating up.
The bad news for the Heat? Olynyk gets called for a foul while Morris was trying to get off a three. That means three free throws for Los Angeles. Morris makes all three.
Lakers 76-72 Heat, 10:20, 4th quarter
Jimmy Butler starts the scoring in the fourth. On the other end, Kuzma gets fouled and goes to the line, the Lakers are starting to even out the foul disparity here and that could be the ballgame. Kuzma makes one of two.
Lakers 75-70 Heat, 11:37, 4th quarter
It’s Erik Spoelstra’s time for the in-game interview. Not really the ideal time considering the massive mental mistake we all just witnessed.
Lakers 75-70 Heat, end of the 3rd quarter
Iguodala fouls Davis who, rather shockingly, gets to the line for the first time all game. He makes both. He makes his second trip soon after, however, because with 4.6 left in the quarter, Adebayo picks up a loose ball foul that puts Davis on the line. Absolutely inexcusable since Miami had time for the last shot. Instead Davis makes two free throws to extend the lead and Butler’s last second prayer goes unanswered on the other end. Lakers are up five heading into the fourth quarter.
Lakers 71-70 Heat, 1:14, 3rd quarter
Now it’s Robinson on the line, he makes his. Davis can’t find the rim with his shot and there’s a struggle for the ball. Miami I up with it! Olynyk with a layup! It’s a one-point game!
Lakers 71-66 Heat, 1:52, 3rd quarter
Anthony Davis with a crucial three pointer. That’s a seven-point Laker lead and this could be point in the game where the Lakers takeover. The Balance of the game feels like it’s at stake.
Kuzma fouls Olynyk however and he makes both of his free throws, those are what’s helping Miami stick around this game.
Lakers 68-64 Heat, 2:37, 3rd quarter
Kuzma attunes for his mistake and then some on the Lakers’ next possession hitting a three pointer to extend the Lakers lead.
Lakers 65-64 Heat, 3:45, 3rd quarter
The official say that James’s basket was after the foul and doesn’t count. Big break for the Heat because on the next play Butler steals a lazy Kuzma pass and goes runnin’ with the devil to the other side of the court where James fouls him to make him earn his two points on the line.
Because this is Butler, he does.
Lakers 65-62 Heat, 4:06, 3rd quarter
Butler attempts a fadeway that just barely hits the rim and LeBron James gets the rebound. On the other end Davis makes a basket. Nunn misses a three, can’t really think that’s the optimum play there guys. LeBron James gets fouled by Adebayo, but the officials are gathering to see whether it was before or after LeBron started his shooting motion.
Lakers 63-62 Heat, 5:14, 3rd quarter
Jae Crowder’s on the line after picking up a foul from Morris. He hits both of his attempts and it’s only a one point Lakers lead. It’s been a back-and-forth affair here from the get go.
Lakers 63-60 Heat, 5:41, 3rd quarter
The Heat are hanging in here though. Robinson makes a three-pointer to make it a single possession game. The Lakers wisely call for a timeout of their own here.
Lakers 63-57 Heat, 6:16, 3rd quarter
Crowder hits a three to take it down to a single possession lead but, welp, James has found his zone and he makes a three-pointer as well. James gets an additional free throw after being fouled and the Lakers lead is five points.
The Heat have absolutely out-played the Lakers, but they are down and they are starting to teeter now that LeBron is finding himself. Sometimes that’s all it takes: The Lakers look like they’ve been unchained.
Lakers 60-54 Heat, 7:22, 3rd quarter
There is the kind of big shot the Lakers needed from LeBron James. He makes a sweet three-pointer and then gets the ball to Green for a dunk. After another LeBron James three, the Lakers have put together a six point lead and Miami has to take a timeout.
That was fast.
Lakers 52-54 Heat, 9:09, 3rd quarter
Morris hits a three-pointer, that’s the first Lakers points of the half. James then picks up a foul that puts Adebayo on the free throw line. The Heat are getting FT opportunities and, this is key, they’re cashing them in. Adebayo goes 2-for-2 here.
Lakers 49-52 Heat, 9:55, 3rd quarter
Butler goes back to the line, that’s a foul on Anthony Davis, but the Lakers catch a break when he actually misses one. Herro then manages to hit a semi-contested floater.
Second half begins!
Lakers 49-49 Heat, 10:34, 3rd quarter
And Adebayo looks pretty good. He hits a jumper to tie the game. Nice start to the second half for the Heat.
Meanwhile on the Heat, Jimmy Butler is once again the man. It’s not quite a Top Jimmy performance like we saw back on Sunday, but still it’s 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting. He’s made all three of his freethrows and he’s made two assists and gathered two rebounds.
Whither LeBron?
Okay, there’s the bad news for the Lakers: LeBron remains 3-for-8 and has 5 turnovers to go with his 8 points. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that this statline will look a lot prettier by the end of the fourth.
Halftime Thoughts
If I told you that Caldwell-Pope would be the Lakers’ top scorer after the first half of Game 3, you’d probably think they were in trouble, but it’s not the case. The Lakers are up two at the half partly because he’s been on fire. He’s scored 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting. Good for him, as he’s lived his life as the Lakers fans scapegoat for much of this season.
Still, the Heat have to like where they are. The Lakers still look rattle and this might as well be tied. This is a very winnable game for them. They just have finish what they started.
Halftime!
Lakers 49-47 Heat, end of the 1st half
Now, Jimmy Butler picks up his first foul in the game, which is pretty incredible, all things considered. Rondo misses on the other end, but Iguodala now gets charged with a foul. James misses another shot, he’s now 3-for-8 but the Lakers still have a lead.
Herro’s three doesn’t go in. Caruso, however, hits one. Crowder shoots and misses but Herro cleans it up for him, getting the rebound and making a jumper that cuts the Lakers lead down to two-points at the half.
Lakers 46-45 Heat, 1:40, 2nd quarter
James gets called for a foul and starts in on the refs. What are they discussing exactly? I don’t know but they ain’t talking about love, that’s for sure.
Well, it works. Frank Vogel challenges it and he gets it overturned. The Lakers will keep their timeout.
Lakers 46-45 Heat, 2:02, 2nd quarter
Danny Green with a three to put them up two, but Herro goes to the line with a chance to tie it… but he doesn’t, he only makes one of his free throws.
Lakers 43-44 Heat, 2:58, 2nd quarter
Ooh a nice sequence here from Rajon Rondo. He gets another assist, this time for a pass that leads to a Davis dunk and then he snatches the ball away from Adebayo and gets in Danny Green’s hands for a smooth layup.
Kendrick Nunn, however, hits a three-pointer and after all that work it’s a one point Heat lead.
Lakers 39-41 Heat, 5:24, 2nd quarter
Butler with an attempted stepback that doesn’t go through. KCP misses on the other side. Back with the Heat now and Butler draws a foul. That’s been one of the major keys to his game here, he gets on the line and he’s pretty reliable when he gets there. He makes two right now.
Lakers 39-39 Heat, 6:03, 2nd quarter
At least this time, the Heat respond with their own turnover so no harm, no foul. Markieff Morris finds Anthony Davis. Olynyk, one of the sneaky heroes of Game 3, misses his three. Morris? Well he makes a three on the other end. That always seems to happy after a missed three.
It’s a tie game and the Heat take a timeout, one they may have should have taken slightly earlier in my opinion.
Updated
Lakers 34-39 Heat, 7:08, 2nd quarter
The Heat pick up only their second team foul, which gives you some sense of why they’re ahead right now. It’s a loose ball foul on Iguodala. The Lakers can’t cash it in, James picks up yet another turnover.
Lakers 34-39 Heat, 7:57, 2nd quarter
Possible worry for the Heat: LeBron looks like he’s shaking off his first quarter issues, he dunks on the Heat. Adebayo answers and, well, we’re starting to see why Miami missed him so much in the previous two games.
And then he gets foul, making one of two free throws to extend the Miami lead.
Lakers 32-36 Heat, 9:01, 2nd quarter
Caruso gets called for a technical foul. Robinson will shoot it for the Heat and he makes it. LeBron, on the other side, makes a layup, draws a foul and gets his free throw.
Lakers just can’t make up any ground as Adebayo decides to jump and hit a floater.
Lakers 29-33 Heat, 9:53, 2nd quarter
Bam Adebayo sighting, he scores. Alex Caruso counters but that does little to settle this eruption from the Heat. The venerable Andre Iguodala hits a three-pointer and the Lakers call for a timeout.
Lakers 27-28 Heat, 10:37, 2nd quarter
LeBron misses a layup. Kendrick Nunn hits a three pointer and I guess that Lakers lead was as shaky as it felt, because the Heat are up by a point now.
Lakers 27-25 Heat, 11:44, 2nd quarter
Ah gotta love the old “interviewing the coach in the middle of a Finals game.” These were only good when it was Gregg Popovich ragging on the late Craig Sager. Robinson Kuzma fouls Robinson on a three-pointer, which is… not ideal. He makes all three free throws and it’s a two point Lakers lead now.
Lakers 27-22 Heat, end of the 1st quarter
Adebayo, who made the first shot of the game but has otherwise not been much of a factor, picks up his second foul. The Heat replace him with Jae Crowder.
And another LeBron turnover. These can’t continue. Luckily, they have Kyle Kuzma who hits a three-pointer for them on their next possession. Alex Caruso scores, which is good for the Lakers, but they let Butler hit a buzzer-beater, which is not so great for the Lakers. Lakers lead by 5 points but it doesn’t look like a very comfortable five-point lead right now.
Lakers 22-20 Heat, 1:47, 1st quarter
James, still a bit quiet, gets to the line after being fouled by Kelly Olynyk. He makes one of two free throws.
Lakers 21-20 Heat, 1:47, 1st quarter
Herro misses another three. You live by those, you die for them. Rondo throws a ball out of bounds, and the Lakers are still committing bad turnovers. Haven’t they looked at tape from last game. In any case, it gives Butler a chance to nail a jumper to cut the Lakers led to a single point.
Roommate has gone to bed, because they actually have a real job. This leads me to another thought since there’s discussion of ratings: maybe starting these games at 9:00pm on weekdays on the East Coast isn’t the best way to attract casual fans?
Lakers 21-18 Heat, 2:50, 1st quarter
Kyle Kuzma with a jumper. Buter scores. Playoff Rondo makes his first appearance here, dishing an assist to a red-hot KCP who scores. Butler cuts into the Lakers lead by finding space around the basket and launching a sweet-looking floater that looks even better on replay. The Lakers call a timeout.
Updated
Lakers 17-14 Heat, 5:57, 1st quarter
Robinson reacts to LeBron’s dunk with a layup of his own. Then we have a stretch without any scoring until Davis scores on a KCP assist.
Lakers 15-12 Heat, 5:57, 1st quarter
Roommate asks me who I’m rooting for. Me? I’m rooting for the longest series possible, so I said Heat but entirely monetary reasons. This is one of those days where you realize that freelancing isn’t that much different than gambling.
Out of the time out, Danny Green does what he did so reliably with all of those San Antonio Spurs teams and makes a long three. LeBron is now involved, he rips the ball from Robinson and dunks it for his first points.
Lakers 10-12 Heat, 6:31, 1st quarter
Duncan Robinson hits a three-pointer which is matched by KCP. Herro scores again, a little floater, and the Lakers want to call their first timeout. Lebron hasn’t attempted a shot of his own yet, which is somewhat odd.
Lakers 7-7 Heat, 8:17, 1st quarter
LeBron sets up KCP, who has been genuinely good this series, for a basket and Herro makes his first shot of the game. No sneer here. Too early in the game for such things.
Lakers 5-5 Heat, 8:52, 1st quarter
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hits a three and Jimmy Butler makes an old fashioned three, with a shot and a free throw.
Lakers 2-2 Heat, 9:35, 1st quarter
Anthony Davis with a dunk, that’s also a good sign for a player looking to right himself.
Opening tip
Lakers 0-2 Heat, 11:38, 1st quarter
And we’re off. The Lakers have the first shot opportunity and don’t do anything with it. Bam Adebayo has the first basket for the Heat. That’s a good way to show that you’re fine.
They’re actually interviewing Tyler Herro about his sneer. I am attempting to explain this to my roommate who is not very online.
Herro actually had a somewhat disappointing Game 3, despite his notoriety, only scoring 17 point and missing a lot of threes. The Heat might need some more production from him to tie this up.
Okay, successfully moved onto the living room here for the men’s Finals. This liveblogging thing worked a little differently when I lived alone.
WNBA Finals
And that’s that. The Seattle Storm have beaten the Los Vegas Aces 92-59! Honestly, it wasn’t even that close. Well deserved victory.
Email from Jonng Inbrasil:
The 2 best teams this year (beat the others, not just survived). The stars will shine but the winner will be the team with the supporting players making 3s. This (i hope) will be Miami.
Interesting thing about three-pointers: Jimmy Butler scored 40 points in Game 3 without making a single shot beyond the arc. With all the talk about how the league is increasingly becoming all about three-point shooting, Butler found a way to put together an impressively productive run the old fashioned way, so to speak.
Email from Tom Hiney:
Completely agree with you!
So glad Heat made it a series, But LJ needs to ramp this game with AD and I’d be happy with 4-1
This is why LJ isn’t a Kobe or MJ. If their teams had played that badly, they’d have gotten mad IN THE GAME, grabbed the ball scored 60 points and won lakers the game. However LJ is still phenomenal.
Of course, that’s the major storyline going on here: this Finals, like so many Finals before it, will be a referendum on LeBron James: what will it do to his legacy. At this point, LeBron James’s main opponent isn’t anybody who is actually on the court, but rather the legacy of Michael Jordan (and to a much lesser extent, other legends like Kobe Bryant).
Let’s be honest, there’s a reason that he went to the Western Conference and made it a point to play with the Lakers. It has everything to do with shutting down all possible counter-arguments. If he wins a ring with the Lakers, the third different franchise he will have won a championship with, it will obviously add more fuel to the fire of the Ultimate Basketball Argument.
Email from Jacques Magloire:
Lakers are about to lo, this is the first time that Lebron had such a hungry person to guard.simply said at this point its magic over logic. Everybody on the Heat has to play their role and let lebron try to contain a hungry underrated player of the same age. Defending Anthony Davis is key and Spoelstra has his number.so sorry my friend, the series will be even tonight and Miami will get the championship.
Going bold here, not only will Miami win tonight, they’ll win the series. Ironically they could be looking at the 2011 NBA Finals as a model. In that series, Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks managed an upset win over a heavily favored team led by LeBron James when they beat (oddly enough) the Miami Heat in six games.
WNBA Finals
When they scheduled the WNBA Finals games to work as sort of a lead on for the NBA Finals, they probably were hoping for something a little more dramatic than this. The Storm is now up 75-48 with the fourth quarter ready to begin. It’s all but over here.
Email from Ahmed Osman:
No words can describe how much I wanted Miami to make a series out of this before game 3 and they did, it took everything going their way, but hey, they did it. Jimmy Butler showed he is a world class competitor and “Those other guys” chipped in with double digit scoring. I agree that everything had to go their way for that to happen but can we just take a minute to realise that the Lakers had it easy in game 3 (Miami missing their leading playoff scorer and arguably their second best player) yet still winning? Adebayo returning will be huge, especially with him matching up with Anthony Davies defensively. I have the heat winning this one and Tyler Hero having another crazy night in the bubble.
We’ll see. The Heat now have a reason to believe that they win this series and, hey, it looks like Adebayo is officially available for Game 4. The question is: how effective will he be?
When Snarl Malone grabs a rebound, TM Elliott Turner S.A de V
— Herro Snarl (@ElliottScribe) October 6, 2020
Not all Herros wear capes also TM
— Herro Snarl (@ElliottScribe) October 6, 2020
Miami Heat rookie Tyler Herro, who has been getting clutch baskets throughout this postseason, was the one who provided the visual of Game 3 when the camera caught him giving a Sid Vicious-like snarl.
TYLER HERRO SNARL pic.twitter.com/DT9s9HvSCF
— SB Nation (@SBNation) October 5, 2020
Predictions
Last time around I was extremely certain that the Miami Heat would lose Game 3. I had never been more confident about anything in my life. Well, sports-related at least. I turned out to be extremely wrong, which I was honestly happy about. The longer the series the better, in my opinion. (This feeling may or may not be due to the fact that I get paid per blog.)
I still just can’t pick the Heat to win twice, not against a LeBron James with a chip on his shoulder. Anthony Davis is not going to score just 15 points in 33 minutes again and you can’t think the Lakers will continue to hand the Heat free possessions thanks to sloppy turnovers. The Heat might win another game in this series but it’s not going to be this one.
Have a different read on the series? Feel free to send your predictions here either via email (to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com or tweet @HunterFelt.
Okay here’s the biggest news: Bam Adebayo is planning to play despite the neck sprain that caused him to miss Games 2 and 3. Meanwhile, Goran Dragic has been warming up to see if he can play through his foot injury. He’s listed as doubtful and I would be very surprised to see him playing in this game. Remember that even if Adebayo plays he’s probably not going to be 100%. Still, if they can get anything from him, the Heat’s odds of finding a way to even out this series 2-2 improve dramatically.
WNBA Finals
Just a reminder: there is another basketball game going on here. It’s currently halftime in the WNBA Finals. The Seattle Storm are up on the Las Vegas Aces 43-34. The Storm are already up 2-0 in the five game series, which means if they hold onto the lead then that’s it, they’re the 2019-20 season champions. The game’s on ESPN right now if you want to watch something other than the pregame.
Preamble
Do you believe in the concept of trap games? While there’s never really been any scientific consensus about their existence, they are accepted almost as a matter of faith in sports circles. Maybe that makes us somewhat superstitious, but we’ve just seen it too many times. If you’re not familiar with the term, it goes something like this: a heavily-favored team on a winning streak is scheduled to play against a weaker, possibly shorthanded, opponent and somehow they end up losing. Sometimes big.
Maybe it’s just a matter of things that happen: no team is good enough to win every game and no team is bad enough to lose every game. Maybe. Sometimes, however, it does feel like a team becomes overconfident and it faces a team that rightly feels like they have nothing to lose. The results are... well the results are a lot like what we saw in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
The Los Angeles Lakers were up 2-0 over a Miami Heat team that was missing both Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic. The conversation before the game wasn’t whether the Heat could make a comeback, that seemed out of the question, it was whether it was worth even playing out the next two games. This was going to be a sweep.
Without two out of their three most important starters, Miami had exactly one pathway to victory: their leader Jimmy Butler was going to have to have a monster game and the Lakers would have to make some mistakes. Well, both of those happened on Sunday. Butler put in one of the all-time greatest individual games in Finals history, taking advantage of a Lakers team that was committing an absurd number of unforced turnovers. The Lakers looked like they believed in the hype, the Heat out-everything’d them and, as a result, we might just have a series on our hands.
Here’s the problem: it’s hard to count on both of those things happening in a second consecutive game. You can’t expect Butler to have a 40-point triple-double in his second consecutive game and everything we know about LeBron James tells us that he’s not going to let his team (and the Lakers are very much his team) off the hook after Sunday’s shockingly unfocused effort. In other words, Game 4 will not be a trap game, they know exactly how the Heat could beat them.
If the Lakers win, well they go up 3-1 in the series and all the pressure is on Miami to win three straight games. It’s better than being down 3-0, but not by a whole lot. However, if the Heat can even this up… well we have one of the most unexpectedly competitive NBA Finals we’ve seen in a while.
The stakes could not be higher. Have thoughts/comments/jokes/what-have-you’s? Send them in our direction and we’ll use them throughout this blog. You can send emails to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com or Tweet @HunterFelt. It’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals featuring the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat at the Magic Kingdom. The game’s scheduled to start at 9pm EST, but we’ll be here well before that.
Hunter will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s a look at Jimmy Butler’s performance in the series so far:
Things looked plenty grim for the Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat entering Sunday night’s third game of the NBA finals.
Even at full strength, the improbable Eastern Conference champions had gone off as longshots against a Los Angeles Lakers team fronted by two of the five best players in the world in LeBron James and Anthony Davis. But after losing their second- and third-best players to injuries and getting mostly overwhelmed in the first two games of the best-of-seven championship series, Miami were all but written off entirely.
As Butler soberly assessed after Friday night’s Game 2 loss pushed the Heat to within two games of elimination: “We got to play damn near perfect in order to beat those guys.”
On Sunday night, he took it upon himself to do just that.
You can read the full article below:
