The Miami Heat avoided elimination from the NBA Finals on Friday night. Five takeaways from the Lakers' loss in Game 5.
The Lakers squandered a prime opportunity to put away the Miami Heat and secure the NBA title in Game 5. Is an NBA Finals nightmare brewing for Lakers?“We are here for a purpose,” he said. “We are trying to compete for a title. That has not changed. And our players, our guys are the ones in this arena, marred by sweat, tears, blood. And that’s right where they are meant to be.”It’s unclear if that was a reference directed at James, but that idea seems to have been motivating for the Heat.
“When you turn the ball over, you don’t get shots at the basket,” Alex Caruso said. “If we take a couple of those out, maybe we have two, four more points and win the game.”The Lakers did not get much out of their bench on Friday, with only 14 points between the four reserves who played, and all of them with negative plus/minus ratings. Kyle Kuzma scored the most of the group — seven points — but missed all four of his three-point attempts and had a rating of minus 17.
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