Lakers whip injury-plagued Heat in NBA Finals opener

Led by Anthony Davis and LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers hammered the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday, winning 116-98.

The Lakers outscored the Heat 65-48 over the middle two quarters, and led 93-67 entering the fourth quarter.

Miami, the Eastern Conference’s No. 5 seed, trailed by as many as 32 points (87-55 with 6:04 to play in the third quarter).

What’s more, the Heat lost point guard Goran Dragic (left foot; torn plantar fascia) and All-Star big man Bam Adebayo (left shoulder) in the second and third quarters, respectively.

“We’re much better than we showed tonight,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters after the blowout loss. “You have to credit the Lakers, and we’ll get to work for the next one.”

The Lakers, in fact, trailed 23-10 in the opening quarter before they turned things around.

The team’s dynamic duo set the tone.

Davis, making his NBA Finals debut, paced the Lakers, the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed, with 34 points, including 10-for-10 at the free-throw line. LeBron James, appearing in his 10th Finals, orchestrated the team’s tempo at both ends of the floor, finishing with 25 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists.

Key to victory for Lakers

A reporter asked James about the Lakers’ turnaround in the post-game news conference, saying the team went “on a 75-30 run.”

In actuality, it began with a 19-3 spurt to close out the first quarter.

As a result, the Lakers pulled ahead 31-28 entering the second stanza.

James described the team’s comeback in the NBA Final opener as one in which the Lakers were “paying attention to detail.”

He elaborated: “I don’t think in the beginning that we were physical enough. You have to get a feel for how hard Miami plays. I think they smacked us in the mouth, and we got a sense of that. And so we knew how hard we had to play if we wanted to try to make it a game.

“You know, from that moment when it was 23-10, we started to play to our capabilities. We started flying around. We started getting defensive stops. We started sharing the ball a lot better offensively and just got into a really good groove.”

A look ahead at the NBA Finals

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is on Friday at Walt Disney World in Florida.

For the Heat to earn a bounce-back win a better all-around effort is needed, according to veteran star Jimmy Butler.

“We just got to be tougher,” Butler insisted after Game 1. “We got to put up more of a fight. I don’t think we did that. And then it doesn’t help whenever we don’t make shots. It’s been that way all year long, whenever we start to miss a couple shots, we don’t do what we’re supposed to do on the other end.

“So I think we should always think about letting our defense, for sure our rebounding, start it off for us and then hopefully we start to make shots.”

Consequently, the numbers tell the story: Miami shot 42.7 percent (38-for-89 from the floor, including 11 of 35 on 3-pointers). The Heat made 11 of 14 foul shots.

The Lakers were a better shooting team. They shot 38-for-84 (45.2 percent) from the floor. They made 15 of 38 on 3-point attempts.

More importantly, they were 25 of 27 at the free-throw line.

Frank Vogel’s perspective
on NBA Finals opener

In assessing the Lakers’ performance in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Frank Vogel commended his players with competing “with great energy and confidence.”

“We got off to a little bit of a slow start,” the coach conceded, “with our pick-and-roll coverages to start the game, but our bench has been good for us all year. (Kyle) Kuzma and (Rajon) Rondo came in and Alex (Caruso), those guys brought great energy. Helped us get stops and get out on the break some. Rondo orchestrated a few buckets for us and helped turn the game around.”

‘Hustling their tails off’

Viewers of the Lakers-Heat NBA Finals opener saw LeBron and company playing a high-energy brand of basketball. With hustle and muscle, they outplayed and outworked the Heat.

Thus, Vogel was pleased with the results.

“Our guys are just hustling their tails off, flying around on the defensive end, and then playing effort offense, as well,” Vogel told reporters. “Really pushing the tempo on the break, attacking the paint, and crashing the boards. Just the pace of the game really picked up in those two quarters, and obviously they were the difference makers.”

For instance, Davis and Danny Green each blocked three shots in the spirited effort.

Mixed results for Heat rookies

For Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s team, rookies Kendrick Nunn (18 points, 8-11 shooting in nearly 20 minutes and Tyler Herro (14 points on 6-for-18 shooting) had mixed results in the NBA Finals opener..

Inside dominance in NBA Finals opener

The Lakers pulled down 54 rebounds and held the Heat to 36 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

In addition to James’ aforementioned game-high 13 rebounds and Davis’ nine, Dwight Howard and Kuzma grabbed eight rebounds apiece for the Lakers.

Miami’s top rebounders were Andre Iguodola, Nunn and Kelly Olynyk with five apiece.

Top Heat scorers in Game 1

For Miami, in addition to Nunn and Herro, the top scorers were Butler with 23 points and Jae Crowder with 12, all of which came on 3-pointers.

Adebayo, who is averaging 18.5 ppg in the postseason, was limited to eight points and four rebounds in just over 21 minutes before the injury departure. He had zero assists, steals or blocks in the NBA Finals opener.

Dragic added six points, three assists and two steals in nearly 15 minutes before hobbling off the court.

Balanced scoring for Lakers

With Davis and James leading the way, the Lakers offense kept the pressure on the Heat defense.

Which created ample scoring opportunities for other players, including Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with 13, Green with 11 and Caruso with 10. Rondo chipped in with seven points off the bench.

Getting off to a good start

Davis said the Lakers were focused on beginning the series with a positive result.

Hence, a win achieved that goal.

“We just want to be a team to apply pressure. They (the Heat) won all their Game 1s (this postseason),” Davis commented. “We lost two and won one, but we want to be able to come out and essentially take care of home court. But we want to win every game we play. …

“But it feels good to get the first game. We’re not satisfied. We don’t like how we ended the game. … But we’ll take the win, but we’ll watch film and try to take advantage, as well.”