Los Angeles Lakers: Rondo is in the Big 3 in win over Heat, 4 Lessons
By Ronald Agers
The Los Angeles Lakers are just two games away from the NBA title. With Miami missing two starters, the Lakers just ran over the Heat. Rajon Rondo jumped into a time machine and put on a visual display of what Playoff Rondo is all about. Lake Show Life breaks down the precision in Lake Show Life Lessons. It’s the only Los Angeles Lakers post-game report with video analysis!
For the first time all season, the Lake Show Life has a serious dilemma. How do you analyze a game where one team is bigger, playing better, harder and with more talent than the other.
Welcome to the NBA Finals featuring the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Miami Heat.
It’s over folks. The Miami Heat had enough issues with a healthy roster. Now that they lost two of their starters to injury, unless 1/3 of the roster has an Anthony Davis growth spurt in less than 36 hours, this is the Houston Rockets series all over again. At least they had a full roster.
- Goran Dragic was held out with a torn plantar fasciitis. (If he comes back [Highly unlikely!], he can’t stay in front of anyone on defense!). Tyler Herro replaced him.
- Bam Adebayo was held out because of a stiff neck that is connected to his shoulder injury bouncing off of Dwight Howard in Game 1. (Lake Show Life mentioned this in the previous post-game report, but Dwight Howard could be the strongest player in the NBA!).
The only difference between Game 1 and 2 is that the Lakers watched film of the first seven minutes of Game 1 and had a conversation about not letting that happen again.
After falling down 23-10 in Game 1, the Heat only led by two points in the first quarter of Game 2. The Lakers led the rest of the rest of the way, carving up the Miami Heat zone to take an easy 124-114 victory. Now that the Lakers are up 2-0 lead in the series, the question is not if they will win, but how long it will take.
At this point in the series, the only thing that NBA fans have to look forward to that is actually interesting is if Udonis Haslem actually starts one of these games. If my colleague David Grubb didn’t mention this on an Instagram Live show, this would have been blown off. But take a listen to the Bill Simmons podcast about an idea concerning Haslem (Warning: A few curses!).
Miami did make a serious push in the 3rd quarter scoring 39 points and actually outscored the Lake Show in the second half. But that was only because Haslem, who is the last guy on the bench gave his teammates the riot act that could not be repeated if ABC wanted to keep their FCC license. Look for the Heat to try this tactic, but it won’t matter.
The Los Angeles Lakers have Anthony Davis and LeBron James and the Miami Heat don’t.
Through two Finals games, the superstars have done exactly what this site begged them to do since the seeding games…DOMINATE!
- Anthony Davis is averaging 33 points and 11.5 rebounds.
- LeBron James is averaging 29 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists.
- LeBron James and Anthony Davis are the first pair of Lakers teammates with 30+ points in a Finals game since Kobe and Shaq in 2002 vs the Nets (Game 3).
- The Lakers are 20-1 when these two combine to score 60 points or more.
- That is tied with Shaq and Kobe in 1999-2000 for the best record in a season by teammates in NBA history, including playoffs (min. 15 games) according to ESPN Stats and Info.
In short, the Anthony Davis trade might have worked out for the best because right now he is looking like the most talented teammate that LeBron has played with in his career. To the ones rolling their eyes at this, Dwyane Wade does agree.
The Los Angeles Lakers are rolling right now. They are focused and deserve credit for not having a letdown in the second half. It would have been easy to be sucked into the trap of firing jumpers over the zone and not using their size advantage.
Instead, they locked down on defense and respected the Heat’s increased efforts after Haslem lit them up.
To the new Los Angeles Lakers fans that are checking us out for the first time, welcome to Lake Show Life Lessons. An extended post-game report with video analysis that will cover the entire NBA Finals!
Over the next several pages we will provide highlights of certain players and coaches. Afterward, the comment section is loaded with knowledgeable fans adding their basketball knowledge. We usually start with the stars.
Which one? Let’s get to Lesson One and find out!