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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – LeBron James woke up from his game day nap Tuesday and decided it was time to send a message to his fellow Los Angeles Lakers.
He grabbed his phone and told the Lakers they were facing a game that he had to win.
“I felt that vibe. I felt that pressure,” James said. “I felt that, for me personally, this was one of the most important games of my career.”
Message sent.
James and the Lakers regain control of these NBA Finals, one victory away from the 17th franchise championship. James finished with 28 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, Anthony Davis’ 3-pointer with 39.5 seconds left finally settled things and the Lakers beat the Miami Heat 102-96 in Game 4.
The Lakers lead 3-1 and can win the title when the series resumes on Friday.
“A great game. A great moment,” James said of Davis’ 3-pointer. “Not just for AD, but for our baseball club and for our franchise.”
Davis finished with 22 points, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 15 and Danny Green added 10 for the Lakers, who were not left behind at any point in the final 20 minutes. The Lakers are now 56-0 this season when they lead the fourth quarter.
Jimmy Butler scored 22 points for Miami, who got 21 from Tyler Herro, 17 from Duncan Robinson and 15 from Bam Adebayo, who returned after missing two games with a neck injury.
“I loved watching our guys compete. I love how they respond between those four lines,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. “This was a throwback game and there were some moments of truth at the end, and probably the bottom line is that they won those moments of truth.”
He is right. Whenever Miami had something going, the Lakers would shut it down.
James’ 3-pointer with 8:18 to play in the third put the Lakers up 55-54 and set the tone for the rest of the night; LA leading, Miami chasing.
“As I always say, they are a very, very, very good team and we have to play almost perfect to beat them,” Butler said. “We didn’t do that tonight … We’ll see this, we’ll learn from him, but we can’t lose another.”
The Lakers were up by seven with 2:27 to play in the third after Davis’ 3-pointer; Miami scored the next six to get to one. Herro made an early 3 in the fourth to put Miami inside one again; the Heat quickly fouled Markieff Morris on a 3-point attempt, and he made all three shots.
Butler scored inside to tie the game with 6:27 left; James scored the next five points himself, including a three-point play in which he ended up on his back after spinning the ball perfectly off the glass to score on a drive while making contact.
“You have to recognize the competitive spirit of our guys,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “They were flying and competing at an extremely high level at that end of the court.”
A bounce here, a bounce there. Those were the differences in the end, and the Lakers made their own breakups.
Butler had a 3 corner kick that would have given Miami the edge with 3:05 left; Caldwell-Pope made a 3 corner at the other end seven seconds later and the Lakers were up 93-88. Miami then delivered the ball in a shot clock violation; Caldwell-Pope scored on a drive for a seven-point lead.
James said the job is not done. But he knows the Lakers are on the brink.
“I love what we did tonight,” James said.
TIPS
Lakers: Dwight Howard nearly collided with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver as he pulled the Lakers out of the locker room for pregame warm-ups. … The Lakers finished 14 of 39 on 3s, making them 59 of 166 on the series. Before this year, the Lakers’ record for triples in a final was 43 and 125 attempts, both beaten this year in the first three games.
Heat: Point guard Goran Dragic (left plantar fascia tear) trained on the court before the game in hopes of being able to play for the first time since the first half of Game 1, but was ruled out again shortly after. … Robinson’s first triple on Tuesday was his 50th of the playoffs, which means he and Jae Crowder are the first duo in Heat history with 50 postseason triples each. They are the fourth teammates in NBA history to accomplish that feat.
3-1 LEADS
This is the 36th time a team has led 3-1 in the NBA Finals. Of the 35 above, the team with the advantage has won the title 34 times: James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 became the exception when they won three straight games to defeat Golden State.
In the 3-1 finals situation, the series has ended in five games 51.4% of the time (18 cases), in six games 40% of the time (14 cases) and in seven games 8.6% of time (three cases).
HALF RARE
The Lakers led 49-47 at halftime. It was only the third time in the last 26 games of the NBA Finals that no team reached 50 points in the first 24 minutes. Tuesday was the 1,140th game played this season and only the 35th occurrence of both teams scoring 49 or less at halftime, which is equivalent to 3.1% of the time.
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