Los Angeles, Miami look to finish off series
Low seeds are single win from conference final
NEW YORK — Lebron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat three years ago in the most unusual
NBA Finals ever, played neither during the normal season nor in their home arenas. Those teams might be moving toward something else the league has never seen.
Both have 3-1 leads and can advance to their conference finals Wednesday night, which would leave them one round away from a potential unprecedented championship matchup pitting a No. 7 vs. a No. 8 seed.
The Lakers can get to the Western Conference finals by ending the championship reign of the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 in San Francisco, where they were routed in Game 2 before clamping down the last two games.
“I think we’ll be ready,” James said. “One thing when you play Golden State, you don’t have an opportunity to relax. You just don’t. So I’m not worried about us going in there comfortable. You just can’t do it versus Golden State, it’s not even — it’s not possible.”
Not that Stephen Curry and the Warriors ever consider themselves out after all the successes and experience to lean on from the past decade. He and Draymond Green have shared with teammates the challenges of being down
3-1 as Golden State held a film session Tuesday and some players like struggling guard Jordan Poole worked on the court.
“The main thing is to focus on the process and just fill up the cup today, recharge, get ready to go tomorrow,” coach Steve Kerr said. “Because we’ve been in these series for a long time, for a decade now, we understand the swings, the back and forth, so we’ve just got to get ready for tomorrow.”
The Heat can finish off the Knicks in New York and get to the conference finals for the third time in four years, this time as the lowest-seeded team in the field.
Defend like these teams do, and it doesn’t matter the number in front of your name.
The Lakers and Heat both seized control of their series by winning two straight at home. After uneven regular seasons that forced them to come through the play-in round, they have emerged as the dominant teams in the postseason, just as they were in the late summer and fall of 2020 at the NBA’S restart at Walt Disney World amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now they need one more strong effort in what’s often considered the toughest game of the series to win.
“Your competitive nature heightens in those closeout games,” Heat veteran Kyle Lowry said. “I’ve been in a lot, and I’ve been on both ends, so I’ve been in these situations before and I know how hard they are. But it’s all about focusing on the game plan and what you have to do, right? It’s going to be so crazy, ups and downs, but if you just focus on the game plan and what you know to do and bank on your principles and have your teammates’ backs, anything can happen.”
Los Angeles limited Golden State to 17 points in the fourth quarter to pull out a 104-101 victory on Monday. The Lakers are 17-5 since March 19 and now need only to avoid their first three-game losing streak in three months to book their spot opposite Denver or Phoenix in the West finals.
Do so and they would match the 1987 Seattle Supersonics for the lowest-seeded team to reach the West finals. A No. 7 seed never has played in the NBA Finals in the current postseason format that began in 1984.
There has been one No. 8, when the Knicks got there in 1999. These Heat continue to show how much they want to be the second, chasing down seven offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter to outwork New York and hold on for a 109-101 victory Monday.
“I guess maybe they want it more, I don’t know,” Knicks forward Julius Randle said. “That’s been who we are all year and we’ve got to find a way to step up and make those plays if we want to keep this season alive.”