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ORLANDO (AFP, REUTERS) – The Los Angeles Lakers dominated the Miami Heat 106-93 on Sunday (October 11) to win a 17th National Basketball Association championship, which equals a record, but is the first since 2010.
Superstar LeBron James powered the Lakers with a triple-double of 28 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists, capturing his fourth NBA title with a different third team.
“It means a lot to represent this franchise,” said James, who joined the team in the summer of 2018 after missing the play-offs for five straight seasons.
“I told (Lakers president) Jeanie (Buss) when I came here that I was going to put this franchise in its rightful place.
“We just want our respect. Rob (Pelinka) wants his respect, Coach (Frank) Vogel wants his respect, our organization wants his respect, the Lakers nation wants his respect,” he said. “And I want my damn respect too.”
Anthony Davis added 19 points and 15 rebounds as the Lakers completed a 4-2 best-of-seven championship series win in the NBA’s quarantine bubble in Orlando.
It also marked the end of an emotional season for the franchise after the Lakers great Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others near Los Angeles in January.
The Lakers pushed themselves, outplayed and outplayed the Heat, making sure the game didn’t come down to any last-gasp effort, as it did when they were denied in Game 5 on Friday.
Los Angeles had opened him up at halftime, his 36 second-quarter points equaling the Heat’s first-half total as the Lakers took a 64-36 lead at halftime.
Four Lakers players had scored in double figures at halftime. Rajon Rondo had a perfect six of six from the court in the first half as the Lakers built the second-largest halftime lead in NBA Finals history.
Rondo, who won a title with the Celtics in 2008, scored 19 points off the bench. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 17 and Danny Green scored 11.
The Heat, who had stunned the Lakers on Friday with Jimmy Butler’s resounding triple-double, failed to produce another miracle in front of the stifling Los Angeles defense.
Bam Adebayo led the Heat with 25 points and 10 rebounds and Butler and Jae Crowder added 12 apiece, but Miami simply had no response to the knockout blow from Los Angeles in the first half.
The Lakers’ 17 titles were tied with the Boston Celtics for the most all-time.
James won the MVP award of the finals. He also claimed the award during two championship races with Miami and one with Cleveland, and is the first player in NBA history to win NBA Finals MVP honors with three different teams.
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