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LeBron James # 23 of the Los Angeles Lakers during the fourth quarter against the Miami Heat in Game Five of the 2020 NBA Finals at AdventHealth Arena at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on October 9, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Sam Greenwood / Getty Images / AFP
“King” James and the Los Angeles Lakers were ready for their coronation, but Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat had other ideas.
Now, says Lakers superstar LeBron James, the key to closing the Heat for a first NBA title in a decade on Sunday will not focus on lifting the trophy but on winning a single game.
“Listen, at the end of the day, they don’t predetermine anything and take the game as it goes and play it,” said James, who scored 40 points in his team’s 111-108 loss to Miami that saw the Heat sink. back to 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.
“You play every quarter, you play every possession and you live with the results,” he said. “You don’t think about what could happen at the end of the game and things of that nature. You don’t get caught up in the aftermath.
“You have to live in the moment and prepare for each and every possession, because if you start wandering and your mind starts wandering, you are wrong.
“One thing about this team that we are playing is that they make you pay for every mistake.”
The Lakers took to the court in the NBA’s quarantine bubble in Orlando, Florida, sporting every inch of a team prepared to take down their underdog rivals.
They opted for their black “Mamba” uniforms in honor of the great Kobe Bryant of the Lakers, a team in which they were undefeated in four games.
Star forward Anthony Davis, who was playing in his first championship series, wore gold shoes for the occasion, but the gold Larry O’Brien Trophy remained in its case as Butler duel James down the stretch.
Now the Heat have a chance to match a feat only one other team has accomplished before and rebound from a 3-1 deficit to win the championship series.
James himself was the protagonist when the Cleveland Cavaliers battled 3-1 to defeat the Golden State Warriors in 2016.
‘They make you pay’
He said this Heat team, which ranks a modest fifth in the Eastern Conference and is missing key contributor Goran Dragic who was injured in Game 1, has the same ability as those Warriors to capitalize on every Lakers mistake.
“It’s the same as when I was playing Golden State all those years, you make a mistake, they make you pay,” James said. “So we have to understand that.”
Two late mistakes proved costly in the close back-and-forth battle.
After Danny Green, fed by James, missed a good look on a triple, Markieff Morris cornered the rebound with just over two seconds to go, but he threw the ball out of bounds with a bad pass.
“We have to be better,” said James, who is seeking a fourth NBA title with a third team after winning two with Miami and one with Cleveland.
He said the Lakers must also stay “balanced.”
“You stay in the moment,” he said. “How we make adjustments and how we learn from tonight, tomorrow in our movie session and when we meet and prepare for Sunday will show the difference.”
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