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Los Angeles star LeBron James drives to the basket against Miami’s Duncan Robinson in the Lakers’ dominant victory over the Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
MIAMI – The Los Angeles Lakers battered the Miami Heat 116-98 in game one of the NBA Finals on Wednesday in a dominating start in their quest for a 17th championship.
After a 10-year absence from the championship series, the Lakers returned with a vengeance in the NBA’s quarantine bubble in Orlando, Florida.
Anthony Davis, in the best-of-seven title series for the first time after years of frustration in New Orleans, scored 34 points to lead the Lakers.
“It felt good,” Davis said. “A little nervous, but when the ball tipped, I went out and played basketball. This is a moment that I have waited for my entire career and I want to make sure I seize the opportunity, because they don’t see too often.”
LeBron James, the fourth player to make a tenth appearance in the NBA Finals, came close to hitting a triple-double with 25 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists.
“We have a lot more work to do,” James said afterward. “The work is not done. We are not satisfied with winning a game. It’s that simple.”
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 13 points and Danny Green contributed 11 for the Lakers, who led as many as 32 points.
The Heat, the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference to sweep the Indiana Pacers before defeating the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics en route to the Finals, showed no signs of nerves in a spirited start against the Conference’s top seeds. West a 13-point lead midway through the first quarter.
But the Lakers inexorably took control and the Heat’s dream start turned into a nightmare with key contributors Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo coming out with injuries and star forward Jimmy Butler limping from a sprained ankle.
Butler scored 23 points to lead the Heat, who will try to bounce back in Game 2 on Friday.
– ‘We came out slow’ –
Davis and James said the Lakers need to start stronger in the second game, after Miami came out shooting.
“They came out very hot, we came out slow.”
James added: “I think they hit us in the mouth, and we’re sorry.
“And then we knew how hard we had to play if we wanted to try to turn it into a game. From that point on it was 23-10, we started playing to our capabilities. We started flying. We started making defensive saves. We started sharing the ball. ball much better offensively and we got into a really good rhythm. “
Caldwell-Pope drained consecutive 3s to cut the deficit to 25-18 and Davis tied the score 28-28 on a layup with an assist from James before finding backup Alex Caruso for a 3-pointer to finish first. with the Lakers up 31-28.
Los Angeles continued to spill in the second quarter, beating the Heat 34-20 to take a 48-65 lead at halftime.
3s by Kyle Kuzma and Rajon Rondo brought the Lakers’ lead to 37-32 with less than two minutes into the second period.
Two 3-pointers by rookie Tyler Herro briefly saw the Heat lead 43-41, but the Lakers responded and walked away courtesy of a 64.7% hit rate from three-point range in the first half, when they hit 11 of 17 from over. there. the arc.
Overall, the Lakers shot 45.2% from the field and made 15 3s. They rebounded the Heat 54-36.
After Caldwell-Pope came up with a robbery, Kuzma drove and found Davis for a dunk that made it 61-48 with 1:15 left in the first half.
James made two free throws and Davis dunked to stretch the Lakers’ lead to 17 after a first half in which James shook his shoulder after crashing into the ground with Jae Crowder looking for a fumble.
But Miami suffered worse injury news, with Dragic, the Heat’s leading scorer in the playoffs, coming out at halftime with a left foot injury.
Adebayo left in the third quarter with a left shoulder problem as Butler continued to play despite spraining his left ankle in the first half.
Immediately after the game, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said he still did not know the prognosis for Dragic and Adebayo.
“Regardless,” he said, “the Lakers established the tenor, the tone, the strength, the physicality for most of the game.
“They just took over and we couldn’t get it back.”
Lakers coach Frank Vogel said his team would try to continue applying the same kind of pressure in the second game.
“This is just a win,” Vogel said. “We are happy to have won, but we have to keep our foot on the gas.”
