Heat Take Down Lakers in Miami

Adding to their already lengthy list of hard-fought close losses on the season, the Lakers fell to the Heat 115-107 in Miami, behind stellar performances from Hassan Whiteside and Justise Winslow.

If this felt like a bad case of déjà vu, well, that’s because you just saw the same show Tuesday night in Charlotte. For the second straight game, LA had an early 19-point lead, but let it slip away as their defense softened in the second half–giving up 62 points.

With the game tied at 99 with three minutes to play, Goran Dragic made back to back key plays to help solidify the win for the Heat–first nailing a three-pointer, and then finding Tyler Johnson in transition for another triple. Oof.

LA still had its opportunities to steal the game late, but trailing by three with a minute to play, an errant pass from D’Angelo Russell trying to feed Luol Deng on a slip to the basket effectively iced the game after Miami added a bucket on their next possession.

The night started off promisingly enough for the Lakers, as they opened up an 11-0 lead in the first four minutes. Timofey Mozgov lead the charge, with the Ruski scoring 10 of his 14 points in the opening quarter.

With Julius Randle missing the game to fly home for the birth of his son (Sean is a great name for a boy, I might add), Larry Nance KO’d by his knee injury, and Tar Black out, LA needed all the help it could get in the front-court.

Enter Thomas Robinson. T-Rob had his best game in Purple & Gold, snaring a season-high 12 boards and chipping in eight points on only four shots in his 18 minutes of action. His activity on defense, as well as chasing down loose balls, helped keep LA in the game in the second half.

Still, even with Robinson’s performance, LA was unable to corral Whiteside — who finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds on the night.

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Without Big Ju, LA went small to start the game, shifting Luol Deng to the four-spot and inserting Brandon Ingram back into the starting lineup. I liked the move by Coach Walton for a few reasons in particular — Deng’s best minutes last season were as a stretch-four, and Ingram’s playmaking ability allows LA to run Russell off screens a la Steph Curry with Andre Iguodala.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, it didn’t go exactly as planned. The rook was severely outplayed by his fellow Duke product in Winslow, who matched Whiteside with 23 points and 13 boards of his own, to go along with four steals. And D-Lo had an uneven performance himself — his 17 points and seven dimes were offset by his six turnovers and a few silly fouls on Dragic driving to the rim.

I’d be remiss to not mention Nick “Noodles” Young, who kept LA afloat in the third quarter as its seven point halftime lead evaporated. Uncle P continued his top notch play of late in Miami, scoring 11 of his 20 points in the third quarter. He’s now averaging 21 points on better than 50 percent from the field in his last five, and I’m close to hanging a “trade me for a first round pick, please” sign around his neck when the team gets back to LA.

Alright, it’s been an ugly month. But maybe a minor Festivus miracle tomorrow night in Orlando will help the Lil Lakers end their road-trip with a W.

Game Notes

The Heat did a nice, not-so-subtle troll move by retiring Shaq’s jersey with LA in town. Pat Riley’s speech was…odd? When you’re bringing out props and pouring cards on Diesel’s head like you’re Carrot Top, maybe you need to rethink things. Shaq always does a great job at these things, though, as we know from his Lakers jersey retirement and his all-timer of a Hall-of-Fame speech this summer.

Also, I can’t stand when any Lakers fans or Kobe-worshippers bash The Big Aristotle, but I think we can all agree our favorite moment of Shaq in a Heat uniform was this:

Luol Deng Cooked Meter: “Medium.” Not a bad showing from the Brit tonight in his return to MIA–13 points and seven boards, with two steals to boot.