Heat push past Lakers as Oladipo exits early
The Miami Heat were served up a buffet of Los Angeles Lakers leftovers Thursday night at AmericanAirlines Arena.
For most of the game, it seemingly left them with indigestion.
No LeBron James. No Anthony Davis. No Kyle Kuzma. Heck, not even Talen HortonTucker.
Eventually, Erik Spoelstra’s team offered up something palatable enough to move to a 110-104 victory, albeit a victory that could have come at a price, with newcomer Victor Oladipo limping to the locker room midway through the fourth quarter after clutching his right knee.
“Look,” Spoelstra said, “you don’t know what’s going to present itself in an NBA basketball game. It’s competition and it can go a lot of different ways. We need these experiences together. And I thought we did some things very well.”
So make it five victories in the past six games, as the Heat now head west for a fourgame trip that opens Sunday in Portland, facing questions about Oladipo’s availability.
Jimmy Butler led the Heat with 28 points, supported by 18 from Oladipo, 15 from Tyler Herro, 13 from Bam Adebayo and 11 from Duncan Robinson. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led the Lakers with 28 points.
“Yeah, we could be better,” Butler said. “But you got to take ’em when you can get ’em.”
After falling in six games to the Lakers in the 2020 NBA Finals, the Heat won the season’s first meeting 96-94 on Feb. 20 at Staples Center, when James and most of the Lakers beyond Davis were available. They then completed the sweep Thursday, against a lineup bearing little resemblance to last season’s championship team.
“It doesn’t matter their best players are out,” Adebayo said. “They still are NBA players.”
Closing time:
The Heat strung together an 8-0 run, highlighted by a Robinson fourpoint play, to move to an 80-72 lead with 2:46 left in the third period, but the Lakers immediately pushed back, going into the fourth within 83-80.
The Heat pushed their lead to eight early in the fourth quarter, but by the midpoint of the period the Lakers closed within 92-89 on a Caldwell-Pope 3-pointer.
Later, jumpers by Butler and Herro put the Heat up 99-92, with a Robinson 3-pointer eventually making it 102-94.
Shortly thereafter, Lakers forward Markieff Morris was ejected with a pair of technical fouls, with those Butler free throws giving the Heat a 104-94 lead.
“It’s a game of runs,” Spoelstra said. “And every time we would have an opportunity for a double-digit lead, they would make a run going back.”
Oladipo’s night: It started with arguably the most aggressive action for Oladipo since debuting with the Heat a week ago, in attack mode at the outset, with six early free throws.
He then had a statement moment with 7:11 left in the third period, with a vicious driving, showstopping dunk against Lakers center Andre Drummond, briefly flexing afterward, as if shedding the doubts about his surgically repaired quadriceps. Oladipo also converted a pair of third-quarter 3-pointers, easing those doubts, as well.
“Hopefully he’s more and more in a rhythm and he’s OK,” Butler said. “We definitely need that guy. We want him back, playing like he did today.”
But then, after another dunk, this one midway through the fourth, Oladipo landed awkwardly and immediately signaled he needed to be removed as he limped back on defense, going directly into the locker room. “We’ll evaluate him [Friday],” Spoelstra said. Adebayo said he was hopeful.
“You never want to see one of your brothers go down,” Adebayo said. “I’m glad he’s OK, at the end of the day. We walked in and he was congratulating us on the win.”