A strong second half from LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers powered them past the Miami Heat 117-108 Wednesday evening inside Crypto.com Arena.
The Heat held a 14-point first-half lead and a 12-point advantage heading into the break. But a quick 16-5 Lakers spurt cut the deficit to one with over six minutes left in the third quarter. Duncan Robinson’s one-handed slam in semi-transition eventually widened it back to double digits with four minutes left, though Los Angeles ended the quarter on a 10-2 run to make it a one-possession game heading into the final quarter.
Former Heat guard Gabe Vincent gave the Lakers an 88-87 lead with 10:47 left. Alec Burks tied it at 92 moments later, but the Heat were unable to get back in front the remainder of the contest. Three straight baskets from James buoyed the advantage to nine points with less than two minutes left, which was practically all she wrote.
James, Hachimura and Vincent combined to score 25 points in the fourth quarter alone–two more than the Heat had in its entirety (23). Miami couldn’t generate enough offense outside of “Herro Ball” from Tyler Herro, who put together another spectacular 34-point performance on 12-of-18 shooting and 7-of-12 from 3-point range.
In total, the Los Angeles Lakers outscored the Miami Heat 63-42 in the second half. On the night as a whole, Miami coughed the rock up 13 more times while finishing with 24 fewer points in the paint.
On a more positive note, Miami did have a very encouraging performance from Kel’el Ware off the bench, tallying eight points and 11 rebounds. The 7-foot backup big made multiple heady plays while also blocking Anthony Davis (on his very first play) and breaking up multiple lobs defensively in his 18 minutes of action. Nikola Jovic finished with 12 points and eight assists while Haywood Highsmith had 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
Ultimately, it wasn’t enough to supplement Herro down the stretch.
Miami concludes the road-trip 3-3 and will return home for Friday’s contest against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. That won’t be what people want to see, however, as Jimmy Butler returns from his seven-game suspension.
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Fought hard to stay awake to watch the game after dinner. Going into half time I was glad the Heat were leading, so I dozed off. 7 Hours later, I woke up confident that the Heat beat the Lakers as they had a good zone defense against the Lakers for the most part of the half, on offense Hero was doing his thing, Jovic, JJJ, Ware were very active in the first half. Only to look at the final game score and was shocked they lost the game. Got to watch the 2nd half to fully understand what happened.
shocked u must be from another planet.
In addition to Butler ($48.8M), Riley needs to trade Rozier ($24.9M) and Robinson ($19.4M).
That’s $93M+ in salaries this year and $99M+ next year. What a waste. Start by trading Butler for at least one quality player, then trade the other two for another one.
What is going on with Bam? 10 points and 4 rebounds? WTF? 16.0 ppg, 9.6 rpg season averages and subpar defense? Maybe he’s also upset that Riley hasn’t brought in more top level talent? Maybe he’s just overworked and overwhelmed trying to hold down the fort by himself. Spo needs to start Ware and Bam at power forward. Riley needs to trade for another center to rotate in the post with Ware. Bam cannot compete with the taller NBA centers. However, he would demolish most NBA power forwards.
The Heat need to replace Butler, Rozier and Robinson with another quality starter (or two). DeRozan, Vucevic, Ingram, Porter, Collins, Kuzma, Williamson, somebody.
With today’s loss, the Heat dropped to 9th place at 20-19. The good news is that they are only 2 games behind 22-17 4th place Milwaukee.
No rest for the weary. Denver at home on Friday.
i thought blockinson was 15 sun when did block get a raise 1million for every block?
Tyler Herro led all scorers with 34 points. The next 6 highest scorers all played for the Lakers.
Trade Jimmy, get Tyler some help
I just saw this. I would do it to end the drama.
Sacramento Kings get: Jimmy Butler, Alec Burks
Miami Heat get: DeMar DeRozan, Tim Hardaway Jr., 2028 first-round pick (top-four protected, via SAC)
Detroit Pistons get: Kevin Huerter, Trey Lyles, 2029 first-round pick swap option (via SAC)
I posted that earlier. I also suggested Miami follow it up with a second trade with Chicago.
TRADE #2:
Chicago receives: Duncan Robinson, Terry Rozier, *Sacto first round pick
Miami Heat receives: Lonzo Ball and Nikola Vucevic
Miami Line-up:
Vucevic, Bam, DeRozan, Herro, Jaquez
Ware, Jovic, Highsmith, Hardaway, Ball
Love, Larsson, Richardson, Johnson, Stevens
dunc n terry couldnt get u michael doleac .when jimmy goes face to face with one of the richest men in the world hopefully something sinks into his blue hair.the heat are prob stuck with the quitter for the remainder of the year.what gms gonna want him around his team sun.
help (warebam)hardly plays
As referenced above, the Heat had 19 turnovers to 6 for the Lakers. That hurt as much as anything LeBron did. Underachievement by Bam, Rozier, and Duncan didn’t help either.
I cant remember when Rosier had a good game last time. If Dru would be healthy, he would already sit at the end of the bench.
Ware was great.