Some foolish individuals thought Los Angeles would not even make it to the Finals. Its Achilles heel was supposed to be halfcourt offense, given that the Lakers ended up 19th in that category in the routine season. It wasnt just that their shooting was suspect and their boundary playmaking fell nearly totally to James and Rajon Rondo, it was that their offense didnt sing the way the most aesthetically pleasing ones do. Los Angeles didnt seamlessly flow from one action to another like its Finals challenger. It didnt trigger turmoil and confusion with off-ball motion. The Lakers might make advantages and open shots against set defenses, however they didnt make it look simple..
Los Angeles solution to this was basic: Make life completely miserable for the opposing offense, and run like hell..
Unlike their playoff challengers, the Lakers didnt have a guard who could regularly make Step-back threes or 35-foot pull-ups, nor did they have a point-center selecting teams apart. Their halfcourt offense enhanced in the playoffs, but even in the Finals it in some cases got stilted. It wasnt precisely unforeseeable, and it did not reflect a larger trend about where the NBA is going..
The Los Angeles Lakers lead was just 4 points with a minute and a half left in the first quarter. More than a full calendar year earlier, Vogel informed the Lakers he wanted them to be the most physical group in the NBA. Unlike their playoff opponents, the Lakers didnt have a guard who might consistently make Step-back 3s or 35-foot pull-ups, nor did they have a point-center choosing groups apart. The Lakers didnt have to look like the Heat due to the fact that they could prevent the Heat from looking like the Heat. If the onslaught felt familiar, it was because the Lakers did something comparable in Game 1.
Caruso called it “the epitome of Lakers basketball.” Kyle Kuzma explained it as “crazy,” “incredible” and “probably the most weve ever been locked in throughout the season.”.
” We were all over the place,” Los Angeles coach Frank Vogel said. “We executed our coverages perfectly. And we did it with energy and enthusiasm and active hands, and we rebounded the basketball. And that managed the entire game due to the fact that, with our ability on the break, were getting stops without fouling, other groups had no chance with us getting out on the break.”.
More than a full fiscal year earlier, Vogel told the Lakers he wanted them to be the most physical group in the NBA. They specified themselves with their defense, a plain contrast to any of James teams given that he left Miami in 2014– throughout the routine season, they were communicative, linked and dedicated to getting stops, and teams that failed to sprint back versus them got burned. They finished third in defensive rating and 3rd in challenger turnover rate, and, according to Cleaning The Glass, first in transition offense..
It would not have advanced past the second round if it did not bench its standard bigs and play Davis specifically at center, where he is as disruptive a force as there is in the league, the same move Vogel made in Game 6 of the Finals. The Lakers didnt have to look like the Heat due to the fact that they might prevent the Heat from looking like the Heat.
” You can have a talented team, even a defensive-talented group, but if everybody is not working together and everybody is not bought in and seeing the worth of being able to take and suffocate an opponent away their strength, youre not going to reach that level,” Vogel said. “But our guys saw the worth extremely early on. They bought in.”.
If the attack felt familiar, it was since the Lakers did something comparable in Game 1. Miami began the series in rhythm and took an early lead, but everything flipped about six minutes in.
All season, Los Angeles feasted on live-ball turnovers. Miamis offense, so gorgeous at its best, unexpectedly appeared stagnant, an outcome of the Lakers disruptive defense as much as its own exhausted legs.
When LeBron James played for the Miami Heat, they called them skirmishes. A few stops, a couple of dunks in transition and a video game changes. It occurs quickly and without warning, like an earthquake. James group is energized, the opponent demoralized..
To beat a James-led group generally needs discipline. Mistakes on the offensive end become easy baskets on the other end, plunged shoulders and pointed fingers. In Game 6 of the 2020 NBA Finals, the Heat were on the wrong end of the skirmish.
The Los Angeles Lakers lead was just four points with a minute and a half left in the first quarter. Less than a minute into the 2nd, it was 11, and Miami was starting to use down. The skirmish, though, started in earnest when Anthony Davis rejected a Kendrick Nunn layup 4 and a half minutes before halftime. The block led to a ridiculous and-1 from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the start of an 18-2 run that gave the Lakers a 30-point lead.
Later, James said they did it by playing more physically and with more attention to information..
” We began to play to our abilities,” he stated. “We started flying around. We started getting protective stops.”.
Story of the season..
