The Lakers Made A FATAL MISTAKE...

Jimmy Butler had one of the most heroic finals performances in NBA history. A 40 point triple double. And he went directly at Lebron James saying you’re in trouble. So Let’s break down how Miami did the unthinkable with 2 of their starters injured, but also the fatal mistakes the Lakers made to allow them to get the win. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. First up, we gotta talk about Jimmy. Tell me what you see in these clips. Right here with KCP on him it’s bullyball straight to the rim. Next up, Kuzma, same thing. Goes to the paint and gets the bucket. This possession it’s Danny Green, can you guess what happens? Throughout the entire game, over and over again. He was determined that every time when Lebron was not guarding him, it’s gonna be bullyball inside. But James is his primary defender, so how did Miami get him off of Jimmy? Well similarly to Butler, the role players were also aggressive. On the hand offs from Jimmy they were looking to score. Right here Nunn curls, forces Lebron to switch, not afraid of the moment and knocks it in. Here’s Tyler Herro doing the same thing. When you shoot and eventually make some of these, James has to move away from Butler and contest. And here we have Duncan Robinson with the exact same thing from the hand off. But speaking of Robinson, there was something interesting I noticed. First of all, he actually was a threat for once. If games 1 and 2 Spoelstra had to yell this to him, he was out there moving and cutting and forcing switches and shooting the ball. Even if he didn’t make a lot of them, it still opened up other opportunities for Butler for example. But check this out. As opposed to just 21 and 27 minutes in the first 2 games, he now played almost 40. And the answer is on the defensive end. While previously Lebron would hunt him for the mismatch and then dominate, now as you can see right here both Robinson and Herro, would just jump out and briefly be there, enough to get Butler time to go over the screen. And while there’s always the danger of an open shot, in this game we saw a lot of situations where the Lakers offense would be slowed down and they didn’t get the matchup they wanted. So that’s how Miami’s smaller guards were able to hold their own and stay on the court. But let’s put Jimmy Butler’s hero mode performance, and the Heat’s defensive adjustment aside, and let’s talk about some of the fatal mistakes that directly impacted the Lakers to lose this game. First of all the Lakers had 19 turnovers in this game and Lebron had 8 of those. Sure, the Heat were aggressive with their backs against the wall, but there were a lot of mistakes that cannot happen in a finals game. Next, Anthony Davis had 0 points and just 1 shot attempt throughout the entire 4th quarter. For your leading scorer to almost not even touch the ball for the entire quarter that’s inexcusable. Combined with the fact that Davis had 3 fouls earlier in the first half, he was limited to 15 points in this game. But again, he has to be more assertive with the game on the line, and the Lakers have to go to him. As big of a problem as Lebron is to Miami, Davis is just as much if not more in this series. So this is crazy to me that in the 10 minutes he played in the fourth, he got only 1 shot. And finally, finishing up the same way I started this video. Just from a different perspective. Los Angeles literally watched Butler and allowed him to barrel his way to the rim and either score or get free throws without changing up anything defensively. Literally the entire 4th quarter the Heat’s offense was get the ball to Jimmy, get Lebron off of him and let him go to work. These are some things that I believe Vogel and the coaching staff will address and there will be adjustments for the next game. And speaking of that, I’m looking forward to game 4. Miami got their confidence and their swagger back with this win, so with a chance to tie it up the next one should be a war. And I’m very excited for it. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.