Heat ‘grateful’ for experience in Finals vs. L.A.
The Heat looks back at its 2020 NBA Finals experience against the Los Angeles Lakers and how it can help during this season’s playoff push.
As the Miami Heat continues to establish itself as a legitimate championship contender this season, a reminder of the organization’s last NBA Finals run arrives this weekend.
The Heat, which fell to the Atlanta Hawks 110108 at State Farm Arena on Friday night, hosts LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday (6 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and NBA TV) to open a four-game homestand at FTX Arena. The Heat and the Lakers also faced off in the 2020 NBA Finals in the Walt Disney World bubble, with Los Angeles winning the championship series 4-2.
“I think about it a lot,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said to the Miami Herald of the 2020 Finals. “It’s probably heightened because we were [in the bubble] 100 days. You always have everything invested into it. But that was very unique, obviously, because of the circumstances and the camaraderie and the emotional investment was as high as any group that I’ve been around. I think all the factors led to that.”
Eight players from the
roster that the Heat carried into the 2020 Finals remain: Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Udonis Haslem, Tyler Herro, KZ Okpala, Duncan Robinson, Chris Silva and Gabe Vincent.
Five players from the Lakers’ 2020 championship roster remain: Avery Bradley, Anthony Davis, Talen Horton-Tucker, Dwight Howard and James. As Los Angeles has worked to incorporate Russell Westbrook this season, it has struggled at times and enters Sunday’s game in Miami with a 23-23 record.
But the Heat is again in the championship conversation this season, as it entered Saturday in third place in the Eastern Conference at 29-17 and just one-half game behind the first-place Brooklyn Nets. Spoelstra believes the experience of going through a deep playoff run that ended two wins short of an NBA title a little more than a year ago will help the Heat’s core of Adebayo, Butler, Herro and Robinson if it has to go through that type of unique pressure again this season.
“I think any time you have an opportunity to compete at the highest level and compete in that final round, you can see how great the competition is and how much is required to be able to get over the top,” Spoelstra said. “I’m just really grateful that we had that experience.”
Adebayo, who averaged 17.8 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game during the Heat’s 2020 playoff run, agrees.
“I think it’s great for us because we’ve been there, we’ve gotten there and we know what it takes to get there,” Adebayo said. “I feel like that’s the biggest lesson in life is experience. So just having that experience, you always want to get that feeling back again. We all feel like we came up short, so the biggest thing for us is