The Los Angeles Lakers took a commanding 3-1 series lead against the Miami Heat after another brilliant games from the 3-time NBA Champion Lebron James and Anthony Davis.
The two were just unstoppable together especially with injuries limiting the Heat’s chances with the veteran Heat guard Goran Dragic being sidelined with a tear in his left foot and first time All-Star Bam Adebayo not being 100% due to a neck injury.
It will be a tough task to overcome a 3-1 lead. Statistics provides that only 13 out 358 were able to win after being down 3-1 and only once in NBA Finals history.
But we are talking about one of the most resilient teams and organization in the NBA. Here’s three reasons why they might be able to at least extend the series and see what happens after that.
Team confidence not shaken by Game 4 defeat
This is not the first time for this group, every each one of them have a chip on their shoulders and they will not back down easily with these kinds of setback.Their leader himself, Jimmy Butler, has one of the most surprising careers in the NBA. From being homeless to being overlooked by scouts to being an all-star and being a franchise player.
He has seen it all, so expect him to be more aggressive and gritty in game 5. It seems that the same confidence is still there based on their post-game interview after game 4 loss.
“Our guys love competition and love the challenge,” said Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra after Tuesday’s Game 4 loss.
“We are here for a purpose. We never expected this to be easy. We’ll just rest and recover. I think everybody could probably use that a little bit. Recalibrate. Get back to work on Thursday. I know our group’s going to be ready.” added the multi-titled NBA coach.
When Butler was asked about it, he answered them outright without hesitation: “But our confidence ain’t going nowhere, it’s going to stay high, I’m going to make sure that it stays high, because it’s going to have to be at an all-time high to get this next win.” said by Butler
The confidence of rookie guard Tyler Herro seems to be unchanged as well. We’re going to have to fight. The series is not over. We have a hard task ahead, but we have the right guys and the right group to get it done.” said by the rookie guard
The formula is there, execution needed
Head Coach Erik Spoelstra, being one of the best tacticians in the NBA showed in Game 3 that the Los Angeles Lakers can be beaten.However, it will have to be a near perfect game for the Heat given the injuries hampering their chances.
Spoelstra was able to adjust from being over matched to actually winning against the Lakers. More aggressive Butler, wins games.
The Heat have reached the Finals due to their excellent team chemistry and ball movement. They give confidence to everyone, that is why a different player steps up every other game.
That factor is missing especially in their Game 4 loss. Jimmy Butler was aggressive, getting fouls from the Lakers and scoring at will.
However, his teammates were not on the same page. They were very bad from the arc. Coming in to the playoffs, the Lakers were one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the NBA, and Heat being one of the best.
But in this NBA finals, tables have been turned. This is due to the fact that the Lakers big are dominating in the paint ang gaining more attention from the defenders resulting to open threes and perimeter shooting.
If the Heat wants to extend the series, they have to step up their game and use their shooting to lessen the attention on Butler and stretch the paint for him.
The Formula is there, what is needed from them is to execute it almost perfectly.
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