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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — LeBron James wakened from his gameday nap Tuesday and determined it was time to ship his Los Angeles Lakers teammates a message.
He grabbed his telephone and advised the Lakers they have been going through a must-win recreation.
”I felt that vibe. I felt that strain,” James mentioned. ”I felt like, for me personally, this was one of many greatest video games of my profession.”
Message delivered.
James and the Lakers are again in command of these NBA Finals, one win away from the franchise’s seventeenth championship. James completed with 28 factors, 12 rebounds and eight assists, Anthony Davis’ 3-pointer with 39.5 seconds left lastly settled issues and the Lakers beat the Miami Warmth 102-96 in Sport 4.
The Lakers lead 3-1 and may win the title when the sequence resumes Friday.
”Large-time play. Large-time second,” James mentioned of Davis’ 3-pointer. ”Not just for A.D., however for our ballclub and for our franchise.”
Davis completed with 22 factors, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 15 and Danny Inexperienced added 10 for the Lakers, who did not path at any level within the ultimate 20-plus minutes. The Lakers at the moment are 56-0 this season when main going into the fourth quarter.
Jimmy Butler scored 22 factors for Miami, which acquired 21 from Tyler Herro, 17 from Duncan Robinson and 15 from Bam Adebayo – who returned after lacking two video games with a neck harm.
”I simply cherished seeing our guys compete. I like how they reply in between these 4 traces,” Warmth coach Erik Spoelstra mentioned. ”This was a throwback recreation and there have been some moments of fact there on the finish, and possibly the underside line is that they received these moments of fact.”
He is proper. Each time Miami had one thing going, the Lakers snuffed it out.
James’ 3-pointer with 8:18 left within the third put the Lakers up 55-54 and set the tone for the way in which the remainder of the evening was going to go; L.A. main, Miami chasing.
”Like I all the time say, they seem to be a actually, actually, actually good workforce and we have to play rattling close to good to beat them,” Butler mentioned. ”We did not do this tonight. … We’ll watch this, be taught from it, however we will not lose one other one.”
The Lakers have been up by seven with 2:27 left within the third after a 3-pointer by Davis; Miami scored the following six to get inside one. Herro made a 3 early within the fourth to get Miami inside one once more; the Warmth promptly fouled Markieff Morris on a 3-point attempt, and he made all three photographs.
Butler scored inside to tie the sport with 6:27 left; James scored the following 5 factors himself, together with a three-point play the place he ended up flat on his again after spinning the ball completely off the glass for a rating on a drive whereas taking contact.
”You must credit score our guys’ aggressive spirit,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel mentioned. ”They have been flying round and simply competing at a particularly excessive stage that finish of the ground.”
A bounce right here, a bounce there. These have been the variations late, and the Lakers made their very own breaks.
Butler had a nook 3 that might have given Miami the lead rim out with 3:05 left; Caldwell-Pope made a nook 3 on the different finish seven seconds later and the Lakers have been up 93-88. Miami then turned the ball over on a shot-clock violation; Caldwell-Pope scored on a drive for a seven-point lead.
James mentioned the job is not executed. However he is aware of the Lakers are on the brink.
”I like what we did tonight,” James mentioned.
TIP-INS
Lakers: Dwight Howard almost collided with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver whereas main the Lakers out of the locker room for pregame warmups. … The Lakers have been 14 for 39 on 3-pointers, making them 59 for 166 within the sequence. Earlier than this 12 months, the Lakers’ file for 3s in a finals have been 43 made and 125 makes an attempt – each of which have been surpassed this 12 months within the first three video games.
Warmth: Level guard Goran Dragic (torn left plantar fascia) went by way of an on-court exercise earlier than the sport with hopes of with the ability to play for the primary time for the reason that first half of Sport 1, however was dominated out once more shortly afterward. … Robinson’s first 3-pointer Tuesday was his fiftieth of the playoffs, that means he and Jae Crowder are the primary duo in Warmth historical past with 50 postseason 3s apiece. They’re the fourth teammates in NBA historical past to drag off that feat.
3-1 LEADS
That is the thirty sixth time {that a} workforce has held a 3-1 lead within the NBA Finals. Of the earlier 35, the workforce with the lead has gone on to win the title 34 occasions – James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 changing into the exception after they received three straight video games to defeat Golden State.
Within the 3-1 Finals scenario, the sequence has led to 5 video games 51.4% of the time (18 cases), in six video games 40% of the time (14 cases) and in seven video games 8.6% of the time (three cases).
RARE HALF
The Lakers led 49-47 at halftime. It was simply the third time within the final 26 NBA Finals video games that neither workforce reached 50 factors within the first 24 minutes. Tuesday’s was the 1,a hundred and fortieth recreation performed this season and simply the thirty fifth prevalence of each groups scoring 49 or much less by the break, which works out to three.1% of the time.
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Extra AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports activities
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