Lakers News: Miami’s All-Stars, Three-Point Shooting Overpower Lakers – All Lakers
Your Los Angeles Lakers sans Anthony Davis couldn’t make it a clean Florida sweep tonight, falling to Jimmy Butler’s Miami Heat 112-98.
Here’s your requisite “Oh my god how is LeBron still doing these fast break dunks in year 20?” highlight:
The Lakers’ third-quarter scoring problems persisted again tonight, as Miami outscored the team 34-26 in the third frame.
Bam Adebayo was in particularly fine form, with a series of athletic plays around the rack:
Etc.:
His fellow All-Star Jimmy Butler, Miami’s top player, was his team’s top scorer:
Miami’s three-point shooting proved huge tonight. 6’5″ “starting power forward” Caleb Martin in particular was a problem:
At one point, the team led by as much as 22 points in the quarter. They closed the period up 17, 95-78, heading into the fourth.
Los Angeles opened up the fourth quarter on a 14-7 run to get the game within 10, 102-92. The game got as close as a seven-point Heat edge before some clutch makes from Butler and Tyler Herro helped the club build back a double-digit lead for good. The Lakers been ineffective defensively on the wing this season, in part because they’re just too darn small (note how 6’3″ starting point guard Dennis Schröder is actually assigned to 6’7″ Jimmy Butler at the top of the arc here).
The Heat managed to ultimately muzzle L.A., 112-98. With the win, Miami has moved over a .500 record for only the second time thus far in the 2022-23 season, with an 18-17 record. The Lakers have fallen to a 14-21 record this year, and a 2-5 record sans Anthony Davis overall.
The Lakers have two more games left on their road trip: against the Atlanta Hawks Friday and the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday. Here’s hoping they can actually close out both of those contests.
