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Even in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers needed a bit of time to warm up, no pun intended. The Miami Heat took advantage of the Lakers’ slow start and took a double-digit lead in the first quarter. However, his early lead was nothing compared to the lead the Lakers would take Wednesday night.
Behind a dominating 34-point performance by Anthony Davis, the Lakers were able to comfortably beat the Heat 116-98 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. That’s a pretty comfortable margin of victory, but it’s a poor reflection of how bad the game was for the Heat.
The Lakers led the Heat by 32 points in the third quarter, 19 points more than Miami’s biggest lead. Once the Lakers rallied from their 13-point deficit in the first quarter, they didn’t look back.
According to ESPN statistics and information, the Lakers are the first team to trail by double digits and then lead by double digits at the end of the first half in a Finals game in the play-by-play era (from 1996-97). Once the Lakers started rolling, the Heat didn’t have an answer for them.
A big part of the reason the Lakers were so successful was their 3-point shot. The Lakers shot 39.5% from behind the arc in Game 1 on 38 attempts, both higher than their postseason averages. Danny Green led all of the Lakers in triples with three triples on eight attempts. He finished the game with a +21 in the box score, which was the second highest plus-minus of the night behind Anthony Davis.
Better late than never, I guess!
Green was one of five Lakers to finish the game in double figures. Alex Caruso (10) Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (13), LeBron James (25) and Davis (34) were the others. In addition to James’ 25 points, he added 13 rebounds and 9 assists in his 252nd playoff appearance, which is now the second-most playoff appearances in NBA history. Tim Duncan was previously second with 251 appearances.
Overall, things went as well as they could have gone for the Lakers in Game 1. However, the same cannot be said for the Heat, who lost two of their key players, Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo, to injuries. . Additionally, Jimmy Butler injured his ankle, although he chose to play despite his injury.
That said, the game was out of his grasp even before that happened. The Lakers looked like the best team, and they will hope to have a similar outing when Game 2 of this series is played on Friday. But either way, they are now three wins away from a title.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast at iTunes, Spotify, Stapler or Google Podcasts. You can follow this author on Twitter at @RadRivas.
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