Barbeque chicken alert!
The Miami Heat are in trouble.
The Los Angeles Lakers are halfway to capturing their 17 NBA Championship.
Anthony Davis made his Finals debut in game one; in game two he became the favorite for Finals MVP.
Davis connected on 14 of his first 15 shots with just over four minutes to play in the 3rd quarter. He finished with 32 points, and the Lakers sealed a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals taking down the Miami Heat 124-114 on Friday night.
“We bring energy from ourselves,” Davis said. “Our bench does a great job at bringing us the energy, that’s where we get our energy from within each other.”
Davis had the 30 points through three quarters on the box score.
Rajon Rondo had 16 points, and ten assists off the bench for the Lakers. However, Rondo was serving barbeque chicken in Miami’s defensive zone. When Rondo was the primary ball-handler facing the zone, the veteran looked at it with a smirk. He would quarterback the offense, patiently finding Davis and LeBron James for shots. James and Davis did their part stationary on the baseline behind the zone defense, and Rondo benefited with open 3-point attempts himself.
The Lakers shot 51%, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma each had 11 for the Lakers.
James finished with 33 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists.
James and Davis were the first Lakers duet to score at least 32 points in a finals game since Game 3 against New Jersey in 2002 when Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant did it.
“I can’t even believe that we are up here, talking about myself, AD with Kobe and Shaq,” James said.
Lakers improved to 4-0 in the playoffs bubble when wearing the Kobe Bryant-inspired “Black Mamba” uniforms.
This is the 24th time that James has had a 2-0 series lead.
The Heat was down by as many as 18 points. Nonetheless, they played better than game one. In the 3rd quarter, the Heat were 12 of 18 from the field, four for five from 3 point land, connected on all 11 free throws, and had only one turnover. The game is four quarters.
“If you want something bad enough, you will figure it out,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Our group is extremely stubborn, persistent; we just need to figure out how to overcome this opponent.”
Miami scored 39 points in the third quarter, and that was only good enough to cut the deficit to 10 going into the fourth.
Jimmy Butler finished with 25 points, 13 assists, and eight rebounds for Miami, which played without injured starters Bam Adebayo (neck and left shoulder) and Goran Dragic (torn left plantar fascia).
“We are going to fight,” Butler said. “We are going to ride this thing until the wheels fall off. It is not over.”
Kelly Olynyk was a factor; he scored 24 points for the Heat, Tyler Herro, at 20 years, 256 days, became the youngest player to start an NBA Finals game. Herro had 17, Kendrick Nunn scored 13, and Jae Crowder had 12 for the Heat in the next man up mentality position they are currently in.
The beat goes on. Game 3 is Sunday night.
Photo/LALakers/twitter
