NBA FINALS: Game 3- Heat win vs Lakers-
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Heat’s Spoelstra: Character, composure key to Game 3 win vs Lakers
MANILA, Philippines — Down 0-2 and without two key cogs, the Miami Heat on Monday morning (Manila time) pulled off the unthinkable in their NBA Finals matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers.
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Los Angeles Lakers’ Markieff Morris (88) delivers a hand to the head of Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler on a shot attempt as LeBron James (23) looks on during the first half of Game 2 of basketball’s NBA Finals, Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
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Buoyed all game long by the inspired play of Jimmy Butler, the Heat came out on the winning end despite lacking the steadying presence of Goran Dragic and defensive anchor Bam Adebayo.
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Where other teams would have folded under the pressure of circumstance, the team from South Beach overcame the odds and escaped from a potentially costly 0-3 hole in their best-of-seven finals series with five players scoring in double figures.
For Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, the victory was a testament to the composure of the team, having overachieved for much of the postseason after posting a fifth-seed finish in the regular season.
“It’s more about conquering those moments of truth during the game and this is where this opponent is probably — not probably, they are better than anybody in the league at that. You have LeBron and Rondo controlling and orchestrating the important parts of the game and we were losing those battles big in the first two games,” he told reporters after the game.
“You have to do whatever is necessary. It’s a 48-minute game for a reason. You have to be able to compete at a high level and there’s a lot of ups and downs during the course of it. I liked it and I really wanted to see how we were going to respond,” he also said.
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‘Competition at its finest’
Spoelstra also heaped praises on Butler, who could not have played any better.
“How else do you say it other than ‘Jimmy effing Butler’? But this is what he wanted, this is what we wanted. It’s really hard to analyze or describe Jimmy until you actually feel him between the four lines. He’s a supreme, elite competitor and we needed it,” he said.
Monday morning’s matchup seemed to be the complete antithesis of the first two games of the series, where Los Angeles superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis imposed their will on the hapless Heat and used their size advantage to dominate the game.
And for Butler — who played 41 minutes and scored basket after basket en-route to a 40-point, 13-assist and 11-board triple-double that ultimately saw his team beat the odds — the opportunity to go up against top competition leaves no room for complacency.
“That’s competition at its finest. I think LeBron has got the best of me way too many times. I respect the guy for it, but this is a different time now, a different group of guys that I have around me, and we are here to win, we are here to compete. But we’re not going to lay down, we’re going to fight back in this thing, even it up 2-2,” he said at a separate press conference.
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“You got to empty the tank on every possession, especially playing against a great team like the Lakers. But we got a good team. Like I say, I got the easy job. These guys create so much space for me, I get to shoot it whenever I’m open, pass it whenever I’m not. I really do have the easy job. But none of us, none of us are ever going to leave anything in the tank. We’re going to lay it all out there on the floor,” he also said.
The Heat and the Lakers go at it again in Game 4 on Wednesday, 9 a.m. Philippine time.
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Butler’s big night lifts Heat back into NBA Finals v Lakers
Miami’s Jimmy Butler talks to teammates in the Heat’s game-three victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals
Jimmy Butler insisted that even with two key players hurt and two double-digit defeats in the books the Miami Heat weren’t done in the NBA Finals.
On Sunday, made it so, delivering a 40-point triple-double in the Heat’s 115-104 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers that cut the deficit in the best-of-seven championship series to two games to one.
“Phenomenal,” was the verdict of Lakers superstar LeBron James.
Butler’s Miami teammates weren’t surprised.
“We know how Jimmy is in these moments, and the world has seen what Jimmy Butler is capable of and he just played tremendous for us,” said Miami’s rookie sensation Tyler Herro.
“He did everything, obviously. Ran the offense all the way through him, made play after play, bucket after bucket.
“And defensively, guarding LeBron, making it tough on him … we were all following him.”
But Butler insisted it was a team effort all the way.
“I think LeBron has got the best of me way too many times,” Butler said. “I respect the guy for it, but this is a different time now, a different group of guys that I have around me, and we are here to win. We are here to compete.
“We’re not going to lay down, we’re going to fight back in this thing.”
The Heat, seeded fifth in the Eastern Conference, have already exceeded expectations by reaching the title series, in which they’ve been hobbled since Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic went down with injuries in game one.
Butler, not one to throw in the towel, said effort was the key to bouncing back from two double-digit defeats and making a series of it.
“You’ve got to empty the tank on every possession,” he said. “I’ve got the easy job. These guys create so much space for me, I get to shoot it whenever I’m open, pass it whenever I’m not. I really do have the easy job.
“But none of us, none of us are ever going to leave anything in the tank. We’re going to lay it all out there on the floor.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Sunday’s game there was no timeline as yet for a possible return by either Adebayo or Dragic.
In the meantime, Butler says he’ll shoulder whatever load he needs to, for the sake of his teammates on the floor — and for those sidelined by injury.
“I go out there and I go to war for those guys because whenever they’re out there, they’re going to war with and for me,” he said.
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