They do not intend to stop there: neither Miami, determined to pick up the Lakers in the wake of a sparkling Jimmy Butler, nor LA and LeBron James, who have promised to react Tuesday for the meeting N.4, already crucial, of the NBA Finals.
This other knife game for the Heat will kick off at 3am next night.
With the knife, because if the beautiful victory won (115-104) on Sunday to pumped up the Florida team, still given the loser after two first defeats in the absence of two of its best players, Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo injured, she has not yet changed the course of things.
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If the Heat wins a second time in a row to tie at 2-2, then the counters will be reset and the psychological advantage will have shifted to its side.
If the Lakers redo the break, they will only be one victory from a 17th record coronation (tied with Boston).
Also, even if 2020 is an unpredictable year in all respects - few imagined the team of Erik Spoelstra, seeded N.5, to climb to this stage of the play-offs - Miami can hardly afford to be back on the wall.
Only one team in history has ever come out on top after falling 3-1: LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers at the expense of the Golden State Warriors in 2016.
"Is nobody counting on us?" Very well, who cares totally ”
Jimmy butler
“We still have confidence in ourselves.
We know we can win.
We are a united group.
Nobody is counting on us?
Alright, we don't care.
We will fight, as we have done all year and during all the play-offs.
We keep confidence, because we know that we are a good team, “hammered Jimmy Butler Sunday night.
These words are the ones he has been repeating over and over for several weeks, as the assumed leader that he is.
This was screaming during the match N.3 punctuated by a huge triple-double (three statistical categories at 10 or more) at 40 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds, obviously preponderant to the success of his family.
Butler refused to dwell on his performance, preferring to warn: “We're not going to let go, we're going to fight and come back to 2-2.
None of us will keep any under the sole, we will give everything on the floor. ”
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Lakers side, no room for doubt yet.
So far, the conceded setbacks have rarely been followed by another in the next game.
“We are not worried.
We learn very quickly from our mistakes.
The video session is going to be very important.
We will see what are the right adjustments to make.
We did a good job on that during these play-offs.
We're really going to have to prove it again because we're up against a very good team.
We have to be better, ”said James.
“When you have an opportunity and you don't take it, then you have to be ready for the next one.
It's not like the streak was over if we won on Sunday.
We know Miami will never give up.
I know how resistant this team and its staff are, ”added“ LBJ ”, crowned with the Heat in 2012 and 2013.
Adebayo back, not Dragic?
Whether Jimmy Butler will benefit from the return of Adebayo and Dragic on Tuesday remains to be seen.
There seems to be more hope for the first, worried by cervical tensions, than for the second, plagued by a plantar aponeurosis.
“Considering how I'm feeling right now, the odds of me playing (Tuesday) are low,” Dragic said.
Adebayo, while conceding that he was “better”, felt he was dependent on a situation that was evolving “from day to day”.
If they were to forfeit again, Butler will be battle-ready for them anyway: "I'm going to war for these guys, because every time they're there, they go too, with and for me."
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