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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Plans are being finalized for the trophy ceremony. The boxes are being shipped out of the NBA bubble before the impending shutdown. Hotel rooms, sometime in the next few days, will be reoccupied by regular folks looking for their long-awaited Disney fix.
For LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, the stage is set.
The NBA Finals, and the longest season in league history, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and the four-and-a-half-month shutdown that followed, could end on Friday night (Saturday Manila time), with James and the Lakers entering Game 5 with a 3-1 series lead over the Miami Heat. The Heat are simply looking for a way to extend this matchup to a Game 6 to be played on Sunday, as James seeks his fourth ring and, he thinks, a whole new level of respect from Los Angeles fans.
“What I’ve learned from being a Laker is that the Laker faithful don’t give a shit what you’ve done before,” James said. “… They don’t care about your resume at all until you become a Laker. You have to do it like a Laker, and then they will respect you.”
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James is 3-0 in closing chances, and 3-1 title series leads almost always turn into trophies. The exception was in 2016, when James led Cleveland 3-1 against Golden State.
The Heat know all this. They don’t seem bothersome.
“Our guys are the ones in the sand scarred by dust, blood, sweat and tears,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Our guys are the ones out there, 28 other teams aren’t there. Everyone else is basically on their comfy couches staring at this one. Our guys are the ones in the arena, and that’s where they should be.” to be.”
Some of that was Spoelstra citing Theodore Roosevelt’s famous 1910 speech entitled “Citizenship in a Republic”, which over time has become better known as “The Sandman.” He is also one of James’ favorites, he was even cited by him before in these NBA Finals.
“We have a chance,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “We still believe. They’re writing us off. Everyone doubts us. But as long as the people in the locker room and our entire coaching staff believe in us, that’s all that matters.”
The Heat fell apart in Game 1 of the series, not by chance in a game in which they lost point guard Goran Dragic in the first half to a torn left plantar fascia and Adebayo later to a neck strain. The Lakers reached a 1-0 lead in the series, but since then, things have been much closer: in games 2-4, the Lakers have outscored Miami by just five points, the Heat have gone 6- 5-1 in the 12 quarters. juice.
“For me, this series is far from over,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “We have a lot of work to do. This is a great basketball team that we are playing for, and my focus is solely on all the little details related to what we have to do to get one more victory.”
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Although Vogel isn’t looking beyond the next game, making logistical plans for the series finale and closing the bubble is nothing more than common sense.
There will be a trophy ceremony when the series ends; It is possible that the owning group of the winning team could be on the court even though they have been out of “the bubble” all this time. On Saturday, or Monday, or Wednesday at the latest, those who stay in the bubble will leave because the series will have ended the night before. Disney plans to reopen the Coronado Springs complex, essentially the bubble’s headquarters, on October 15.
The Lakers are trying to hold their ground, even knowing they are one win away from the rings.
“I think we all know that tomorrow night is a must win for us as well, as much as it is a must win for the Heat,” Lakers forward Anthony Davis said.
It isn’t, but Davis’s point is clear. The Lakers will look to head into Friday night with the same desperation that Miami will have as it faces elimination.
Jimmy Butler, Miami’s leading scorer and the best player in the series, said he will set an example for the Heat for Game 5 by demanding more of everything from himself.
“I have to be able to do a lot more,” Butler said. “I have to be able to set the tone from the jump, play with the highest energy that I have played in the next three games and win. That’s what I have to do: win.”
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