The Miami Heat’s bid to even the NBA Finals with the Los Angeles Lakers was dealt a serious blow Thursday when injured stars Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo were both listed as doubtful for Game 2 Friday (Saturday, Manila time).
Dragic has a torn plantar fascia in his left foot while Adebayo is nursing a neck strain in his left side. Miami’s Jimmy Butler rolled an ankle in Game 1 but is fit to play Friday.
Butler said Thursday he believed the team could bounce back.
“Knowing we may be a couple men down, other guys are going to have to step up in a big way,” Butler said. “I’m really, really excited to see how we bounce back, but I think we’re capable of it.”
DRAGIC DOWNCAST
Butler is confident of bouncing back but it was otherwise for the Slovenian Dragic.
Butler said he had spoken to a downcast Dragic since the injury and disclosed that the Slovenian believed that he had let down his teammates.
“It’s just tough to see him in this position because he cares about the game, cares about his teammates, and he really wants to win,” Butler said.
“You can hear that pain in his voice, of him feeling like that he may have let us down, but he did not, and I want him to know that.
“He has carried us to this point, and it’s only our duty to pay that back to him right now.”
WHAT MAKES JAMES-DAVIS DUO TICK
The pair of LeBron James and Anthony Davis has given the Los Angeles Lakers their most potent axis since the duo of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal who led the team to three consecutive NBA titles between 2000 and 2002.
James described what makes his partnership with Davis tick compared to that of Kobe and Shaq whose relationship was undercut with tension.
LeBron says the absence of locker-room jealousy is the key to his successful partnership with Davis amid the Lakers quest for a record-equaling 17th NBA championship.
“We’re not jealous of each other,” James said Thursday. “I think that’s the best thing. In professional sports, you have guys that join forces to become alpha males. That’s what they call them.
“Two guys that have been dominant in a specific sport on their own respective teams, and they get together and they talk about how dominant they can be and they talk about this is going to be this and that.
Davis, who joined the Lakers last year from the New Orleans Pelicans, has played a crucial role in guiding the team back to the NBA Finals for the first time in 10 years after missing the playoffs in 2018-2019.
DOC RIVERS HEADED TO PHILADEPHIA
Doc Rivers’ stint in the unemployment line didn’t last long.
Rivers has reached an agreement to coach the Philadelphia 76ers three days after parting ways with the Los Angeles Clippers.
ESPN said Rivers had agreed to a five-year deal that will bring him back to the Atlantic Conference where the Sixers are a rival of the Boston Celtics with who Rivers won an NBA title as coach in 2009.
Rivers, whose son Austin plays for the Houston Rockets, was dismissed as Clippers coach after the team squandered a 3-1 lead and lost to the Denver Nuggets in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals.
Rivers joined the Clippers from the Celtics in 2013. Los Angeles were consistent playoff qualifiers under his tenure but he was unable to take them beyond the Western Conference semifinals.
The 58-year-old Rivers will replace Brett Brown who was fired after Philadelphia were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.
Big man Joel Embiid welcomed Rivers to the team, saying in tweet that he was “excited for the future and what we’re building here.”
LOWEST VIEWERSHIP IN NBA FINALS
The NBA Finals had the lowest viewership since 1994 when the total number of viewers began to be recorded.
The Hollywood Reporter said Game 1 of the Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat last Wednesday in ABC only had 7.41 million viewers, 45 percent down from last year’s Game 1 between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors which had 13.51 million viewers.
The Lakers won Game 1 116-98 and is eyeing a 2-0 lead in Game 2 Friday.
NBA Finals Game 1 viewership has been down for the fourth straight year. The previous low for the Finals was reportedly 8.06 million in Game 3 of the 2007 NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs.
This was LeBron James’ first NBA Finals appearance. He has been swept twice in the Finals in his career, the second one coming in 2018 against the Golden State Warriors.
CARTER WINS SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD
Vince Carter was named the 2019-20 NBA Sportsmanship Award winner Thursday.
The 43-year-old Carter retired in June after a 22-season NBA career.
He started his NBA career with Toronto in 1998 and played his final game on March 11 for Atlanta against New York just before the league shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Each team nominated a player for the award and a panel of league executives trimmed the field to six finalists, with current NBA players selecting the winner.
Carter received 143 of 266 first-place votes and 2,520 total points in balloting by NBA players, followed by Brooklyn Nets guard Garrett Temple with 1,746 points and Oklahoma City center Steven Adams of New Zealand was third with 1,632.
Carter appeared in 1,541 NBA games and is the only player to have played in the NBA in four difference decades.
He is 19th in the NBA all-time scoring list with 25,728 points and sixth in career three-pointers with 2,290.
(Compiled by Tristan Lozano)
