The Los Angeles Lakers have now taken a 2-0 series lead in the 2020 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat after their win on Friday night. The Lakers won 124-114, in a game where they captured the lead early on in the 1st quarter, never to relinquish it again although the Heat put up a fight for most of the game without two starters in Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic. With how the game was going at certain points and with those two players absent for the Heat, the Lakers honestly should have won by much more. This idea is not lost on the minds of LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma, Frank Vogel, and Anthony Davis, as many of them did not sound ecstatic to be up 2-0 considering their performance.
LeBron James specifically called out the Lakers’ defense, saying the following (reported by Harrison Faigen of Silver Screen & Roll):
LeBron, on tonight's win:
"Myself, Coach and AD were not happy with our defensive presence tonight. We know we can be a lot better. Myself and AD, we're not satisfied with just the win. We want to be great."
— Finals Faigen (@hmfaigen) October 3, 2020
In terms of being great, I don’t want to say LeBron is wrong but, I think him and AD were much more than great tonight. They became the first Lakers duo to combine for 60+ points in a game since Shaquille O’Neal and the late Kobe Bryant, as they continue to plant themselves in obvious comparisons to that all-time duo.
After a @taniaganguli question if he and LeBron had any disagreements on the court tonight, Davis slowly breaks into a smile: "Y'all see something?"
Details that he and James had a "moment" over blown defensive coverages, but kept playing through it.
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) October 3, 2020
Backing up LeBron’s thoughts on the defensive presence, Tania Ganguli of the LA Times asked Davis if he and LeBron had any disagreements on defense during Friday’s win. Ganguli must have seen something, as Davis laughed and did admit him and LeBron had a “moment” over blown coverages during the game. It obviously doesn’t seem like the “moment” was a real point of concern, but it shows the headaches that the team might be feeling now as they go through the film of the game. LeBron also emphasized for the second game in a row that he would be looking forward to getting better through the film session (reported by Harrison Faigen/Silver Screen & Roll).
Kyle Kuzma was even blunter than LeBron about the Lakers in Game 2, saying the following:
Kyle Kuzma, on the Lakers taking a 2-0 lead in the Finals:
"It’s nothing to be excited about. We’re up 2-0. Teams come back every game. We’ve got to finish the job. We take it game by game. There’s nobody that’s excited in our locker room, I can tell you that right now."
— Finals Faigen (@hmfaigen) October 3, 2020
Kuzma is correct about teams coming back. Although the Heat definitely haven’t faced a 2-0 deficit in these playoffs as this is the first time they’ve trailed in any series, they will reportedly be getting Bam Adebayo back in Game 3 while Goran Dragic could possibly even come back (although he is probably less likely). If the Lakers played like they did on Friday against the Heat with their full lineup, then they’re probably going to lose. The Lakers can definitely get better on the defensive floor, but they hopefully will not get more shooting performances like they received tonight out of Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The two were terrible from beyond the arc, combining to only make three out of 19 (!!!) total attempts.
Either way, you can tell LeBron, Kuzma, and the other Lakers are not resting on the laurels of being up 2-0 victory. Although, it should be stated that The King has never lost a series after being ahead 2-0 in his very long postseason career.
Game 3 will be on Sunday night.
One thought