After the Lakers' role players' poor performances in Game 5, the Lakers, in Game 6, put their defense hats on, and, using points in transition, and with LeBron James and the veteran Rajon Rondo leading the way in driving to the basket, crushed the Miami Heat in the decisive Game 6 to win the Lakers' franchise's 17th championship (tying them with the Boston Celtics, who won 11 of their championships in one decade, the 1960s--mostly under Red Auerbach). The Lakers finally returned to the Finals after a decade drought, the longest in their existence from Minneapolis and Los Angeles (I mean, really, how many lakes are there in Los Angeles, people?).*
At the start of this decisive and finals' victory game, Game 6, I had muttered to The Folks how the Lakers needed to crush this Miami Heat team to show their greatness for this victory. And the Lakers proceeded to do just that, which shocked me. The way they built up the lead to 30 points at the half was stunning.
However, let's be clear what also happened: The Heat came out tired, and never really recovered. Jimmy Butler ran out of steam, Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro stopped hitting their amazing on-the-run-quick-release 3s, and suddenly, the entire Heat team fell back to Earth in a way that would have left them losing in the first round to the Milwaukee Bucks, The Team Everyone Thought Were Going to be NBA Champions in 2020.
The key role players who won this game for the Lakers, as fans knew they could count on AD and The King, LeBron James, were first and foremost, Rondo, but also Alex Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, affectionately called KCP. I should add The Dad and I call Caruso "Enrico," which shows our age--well, The Dad's, actually. Frank Vogel deserves great credit as a coach to have inserted Caruso into the starting lineup, and benching Dwight Howard, as Caruso immediately showed his smart, defensive play, and ability to move the ball into the right hands, starting with LeBron, to gain points. KCP hit early 3s that further crushed the often listless Heat in that amazing first half. Also, Danny Green, who I ripped for his open 3 miss at the close of Game 5, hit 70% of his 3s in this game, an amazing percentage. Kuzma, who I had also been disappointed with for the entire season, was 50% for both 3s and non-3s scoring. See the NBA website stats here.
Commentator and former coach, Jeff Van Gundy, was appalled at how often cutting and driving Lakers, particularly Rondo, were beating even Jimmy Butler and other Heat players to the basket, which told me the Heat were simply tired after beating the Lakers in Game 5. Still, as much as I have given great credit to coach Eric Spolestra, Red Auerbach would not have put up with a 1960s Celtics team that let tiredness stop them. He would have ripped them a new one, as we used to say, and I can't imagine Celtics' center and leader Bill Russell just lying down in the middle of the third quarter when it looked like the Heat could only get within 20 points of the Lakers. There would have been far more physicality and determination. As I ripped into the Lakers the other day for a poor performance, and compared the Heat favorably to the 1960s Celtics' teams, I think one must be honest and say what I just said about the Heat team.
Give credit, though, where credit is due: Frank Vogel's continued emphasis on defense paid off in a way that must be leaving Lakers' critics, who thought Vogel a poor choice at the start of this now past season, fuming and embarrassed. Also, I must admit I was deeply impressed with the way Vogel and James strongly and emotionally defended Danny Green in the press, and with nothing showing they were ripping him in private. This proved to be the right coaching approach to ensure Danny Green kept his head in the game. My Italian-New Jersey approach would have utterly failed, I think, if one reads my blog post from the other day. :). Also, LeBron won his record setting fourth Finals MVP trophy, and with his third championship team, four Finals Championships overall (two behind MJ and Kobe). Anyone who does not think LeBron should be the Finals MVP of this series, or this season is beyond any reasoning, and really just contradicting, not arguing, as in the Monty Python sketch. I also tire of whether we think MJ, Kobe, Magic Johnson, Kareem, Bill Russell, or LeBron are the Greatest of All Time (GOAT). They were each amazing in his own ways, and I just leave it at that. And finally, let's give relief credit to Anthony Davis, who is beyond amazing in how he played throughout the entire playoffs. He did not miss a free throw in this series until later in this game, and when they needed early scoring and confidence, he came through. When they needed hard defense, with blocked shots, he came through. He rebounded off offensive boards, and was constantly following up other players driving to the basket for tip-ins and short high percentage shots. Davis was worth every player they traded for him, and I hope Lakers' ownership can make clear to him they will spend whatever takes to build a team around him post-LeBron.
The Mom thinks LeBron will retire now, and run for office in Ohio. I say, not yet, but won't rule out The Mom's thinking. I think LeBron would like to see if he can grab a fifth championship, at age 37, and figures AD is only going to get better, barring any injury to AD or LeBron himself. Rajon Rondo may hang it up, and start to look for management opportunities, as it is finally clear why Rondo wore out welcomes with other teams--which is he is such a brilliant basketball mind, and such a tough guy on everyone, including himself. The Lakers' ownership had better not lose him, as Rondo has some of the managerial mindset that Kobe would have had...
And yes, this is ultimately about Kobe. If 2020 had not been such a ridiculous year, we would have spent most of this NBA playoff season talking nearly non-stop Kobe. I am still in shock about his tragic death, and I continue to believe the NBA and WNBA will miss Kobe for years to come.
However, I must say a word about the referees' philosophy for this series: I never saw so many offensive fouls called, particularly for players passing the ball in the lane. Most of the calls went against the Lakers, who were, admittedly bigger and stronger than Heat players. But those calls often hurt the Lakers and gave momentum to the Heat. There has long been a conspiracy theory about NBA Finals, which is the refs do whatever it takes to prolong a Finals series, and change from game to game in how closely or loosely they decide to call fouls. I have seen analyses over decades challenging the theory, but I really have to wonder in this series. I mean, I never saw offensive foul calls away from the ball more than rarely in my half century plus of watching the NBA, and here, there were probably 20 calls during the series, again the vast majority against the Lakers. I really felt yesterday, especially in the third quarter, the refs were trying to revive the Heat team with such calls, and what Chick Hearn would have called "ticky-tack" fouls, meaning fouls called against defense players where there was very little or no contact. But try as the refs did to revive the Heat, they simply lacked the stamina for reasons I am still a somewhat surprised about.
Anyway, those are my thoughts about this improbable NBA Finals, though NBA Commissioner Adam Silver deserves major kudos for his leading the NBA through what it called "The Bubble," and the way he spoke last night as he provided the NBA Finals trophy to the Lakers' owners. He spoke about social justice, and, did so in a manner that shows just how clearly the NBA ownership is different from MLB and especially the NFL ownership. The original NBA ownership included Jewish men, who were not welcome at NFL and especially MLB ownership circles. The NBA did not lose its mind when African-Americans began to predominate in the 1970s, though so many smart business minds outside the league thought the NBA would collapse before the arrival of Magic Johnson and the Great White Hope, Larry Bird in 1979. The NBA owners saw international potential in a way that continues to elude the MLB and NFL ownership, no matter how hard the latter two leagues have tried over the past decade or so. What this Finals sealed, for me, at least, is how culturally progressive the NBA ownership is, and how astute Adam Silver has been in his leadership during a pandemic. Yeah, the ratings are down, but this analysis shows this is not as dire as NBA-haters, mostly on hate talk politics radio, want to believe.
OK, some last minute grading to do, and classes begin. The rest of you can go back to worrying about the horse loose in the hospital. Oh, yeah, the Los Angeles Dodgers begin their NL Championship Series tonight against the pesky Atlanta Braves. Mom, I am hoping to get another championship t-shirt this year....:)
* Celtics fans are likely fuming and saying the Lakers can't count their first championships with the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers. However, that is a canard, as the Lakers never ran away from their roots in Minneapolis, unlike some professional sports teams that have left town, changed their names, etc. The Celts still have the best percentage of victories when in the Finals, as the Lakers have lost as much as they have won in Finals, mostly due to the traumatic losses the Lakers suffered nearly year over year in the 1960s to the cigar-lighting Auerbach led Celtics teams.
