The Los Angeles Lakers are just two games away from a record-tying 17th championship following a 124-114 victory over the short-handed Miami Heat in Game 2 of the NBA Finals in Orlando Friday.
LeBron James scored 33 points and Anthony Davis contributed 32 to power the Lakers to a 2-0 lead over Miami. Rajon Rondo added 16 points and 10 assists while Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma chipped in 11 points apiece.
Jimmy Butler led the Heat with 25 points, 13 assists, and eight rebounds. Tyler Herro had 20, Kendrick Nunn added 13, and Jae Crowder contributed 12.
The Lakers led by as much as 18 in the third quarter. However, the Heat hung on and lost by only 10, a margin not that big as Game 1 – 18.
At age 20, Herro became the youngest player to start in the Finals since Magic Johnson also of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Heat played without center Bam Adebayo (shoulder strain) and guard Goran Dragic (plantar fascia tear in left foot).
The Heat to avoid a looming sweep and stay in contention with a victory in Game 3 Sunday.
NOT YET OVER FOR BUTLER
Miami forward Jimmy Butler vowed they won’t roll over against the Lakers despite their second-straight double-digit defeat in the NBA Finals.
“We’re never giving up,” Butler said. “We’re going to fight and we’re going to ride with this thing till the wheels fall off.
“It’s not over,” Butler insisted. “We’re just down 0-2. We’ve got to do something special. We’re capable of it.”
Butler said they have to put in the effort in Game 3 to avoid falling into an 0-3 hole – from which no NBA team has come back to win a best-of-seven series.
“We’ve got to play damn-near perfect in order to beat those guys over there,” Butler said. “We have yet to do it, and if we don’t do it soon it’s not going to be pretty.”
UNLIKELY PAUSE FOR TOKYO
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver thinks it’s unlikely the league will pause a delayed 2021 season to allow players to compete in a postponed Tokyo Olympics.
“We’ll consider it,” Silver said in a courtside interview with NBA TV before Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
“I think it’s unlikely at the end of the day that if we start late that we would stop for the Olympics.”
The league’s 2020 season was upended by the coronavirus pandemic, shutting down in March and resuming in late July — more than a month after the NBA title would have normally been decided.
Silver has already said the 2020-21 campaign won’t start before Christmas, which means it will run through the scheduled July 23, 2021 start of the Tokyo Games — which were postponed because of the pandemic by a year.
KOBE’S FORMER COACH FETED
Del Harris, an NBA coach for 32 seasons who guided China at the 2004 Olympics, was named Friday as winner of the National Basketball Coaches Association 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award.
The 83-year-old American served as an NBA head coach with the Houston Rockets, Milwaukee Bucks, and Los Angeles Lakers from 1979-1999 and had several stints as an assistant as well.
Harris was one of the earliest contributors to growing basketball globally, helping five different teams internationally.
“Del Harris’ impact on basketball extends beyond the NBA and transcends national borders,” said Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, the association president.
“His success in both the NBA and international competition reflects a lifetime commitment to the global game.”
Harris guided Houston to the 1981 NBA Finals and was the 1995 NBA Coach of the Year while with the Lakers, becoming the first NBA coach of Kobe Bryant and the future title tandem of Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
“It is truly a special honor to be recognized by fellow coaches,” Harris said. “Being honored by my peers is particularly meaningful to me because I coached in an era that many regard to be one with the highest level of the art.
“I didn’t work harder than everyone and I wasn’t smarter. But here I am, deeply thankful for the blessings that have been given me.”
(Compiled by Tristan Lozano)
