The Los Angeles Lakers went into Game 3 of the NBA Finals as confident as ever that the outcome would result in a 3-0 series lead over the Miami Heat. Unfortunately for Los Angeles, things didn’t go as planned.
Jimmy Butler was highly motivated to extend the series and was able to do just that with a 40-point triple-double. On Monday, Anthony Davis tried to explain what went wrong for the Lakers in Game 3.
Anthony Davis talks about how the Lakers’ lack of communication allowed Miami’s offense to hurt them. pic.twitter.com/gijSsP5mWp
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) October 5, 2020
“You can’t really tell if someone is communicating on film, but you can tell, if you kind of get what I mean,” Davis said. “You can tell we wasn’t. We were off in our coverages. They were setting screens and slipping to the rim without no one guarding them. We were over-helping. We were having blown coverages. There was a lot of space on the floor for guys to drive to the basket with no resistance, no help. Guys were hung up on their man. You could tell that we weren’t ourselves defensively.”
The major advantage the Lakers have moving forward is the fact the Heat are without two of their best players. Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic both missed the last two games with injuries, and their statuses remain uncertain for the rest of the series.
However, Butler and company were able to pull out the win over the Western Conference heavyweights even without Adebayo patrolling the paint and Dragic running the point.
The question now is whether Miami can continue to impose its will on this star-studded Los Angeles squad in Game 4 to even the series at two games apiece. The Lakers will have their work cut out for them against a gritty team unwilling to give in even with some of its best players sidelined.
