It feels silly to call it, but I’m calling it. Game over. Series over. Season over. The longest campaign in NBA history has stretched out over 49 weeks and counting, but the Los Angeles Lakers, spearheaded by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, are doing their best to make sure the upcoming pause is a few days longer than it might have been. History and precedent should tell us that overreactions in sports are a fool’s sanctuary and that a single victory in a long series is just that: one win. Yet the Lakers were so dominant, in so many areas, and with such effortlessness sprinkled into their 116-98 NBA Finals opener against the Miami Heat, that a comeback for the underdog would now veer into the realm of miracle rather than upset. The Heat look like a team that made their best run and used up their reserves of energy in earning the right to play for the trophy. The Lakers have the vibe of a group that has been preparing for this moment for months and are finally ready to uncoil their full force. “(With) the inner challenge for myself,” James said, “It felt amazing to be playing in the Finals again.” It’ll be a pretty good feeling to complete the job and win another one, too, and it looks to be trending that way. It was 2016 when James added his third ring, with Cleveland, courtesy of The Block, The Shot and an historic revival, and – as he needs no reminder of – he has tasted NBA Finals defeat on six occasions. As always, the balance of power in a basketball rivalry is a delicate mechanism. Something can happen that might shift everything. James even reflected with remarkable powers of recall on Wednesday how a Dwyane Wade 3-point shot, which occurred right in front of the Dallas bench in the 2011 Finals, lit a fire under the Mavericks. Following that shot, Dallas went on a 25-5 run, securing a come-from-behind victory that shifted the rhythm of the entire series. However, in this case, it feels like the gap is so severe that it would take several miraculous acts to turn this one around. Barring injury or mishap to James or Anthony Davis, good luck in getting your head to a point where it can find a scenario that sees the Lakers being outplayed, especially after Miami received a visit from the bad luck fairy. Goran Dragic is a likely to be out for Game 2 with a plantar tear, while Bam Adebayo will require extensive treatment to a shoulder strain. Both are listed as doubful to play on Friday. Jimmy Butler, whose bubble experience has been as spectacularly good as anyone’s, appears to be nursing a problematic ankle. Butler said before the Finals that the Heat would need to be “damn near perfect” to stand a chance, and the initial performance wasn’t remotely close to it. The Lakers look ready and really, we shouldn’t be surprised. James was the subject of plenty of silly talk about Hollywood motives when he made the move to Los Angeles in free agency two summers ago, but coming to Tinseltown was always about this, going all out to win another ring – and more. When you’re in that kind of historic rarefied air of stardom, you keep score via number of championships, not with any other type of minutiae. He’s been walking his own path. There is a reason why James passed the ball at times in key situations during the season, appearing to offload responsibility, to the frustration of some and leading to the derision of others. It was because he was already glancing ahead to now, to a time when Danny Green or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Kyle Kuzma would be needed in moments of stress. “Do we still want to question LeBron’s approach?” FS1’s Nick Wright said on First Things First. “Or do we want to trust that everything that man has done all year long was building to this moment?” The most critical piece in the entire puzzle, however, was when James decided upon Anthony Davis as the accompanying star with whom he wanted to make this late-career charge at more hardware. A lot of clunky, mechanical, contractual gymnastics had to go into making it happen, but here is the payoff. Davis, filled with belief and empowered by conferred authority, has taken charge of the closing weeks of these playoffs. If it wasn’t for the fact that everyone is so used to James being the story – because, LeBron … – it is the unibrow-toting big man who would be the primary topic of conversation. “Nobody is surprised by what Anthony Davis did in scoring 34,” FOX Sports analyst Chris Broussard said. “Even though only Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson and Kevin Durant had higher-scoring Finals debuts. “I have been saying this is a mismatch of epic proportions, one of the biggest we have seen in the NBA Finals.” At the end of a season of unimaginable tumult, one that feels like it began in a different era of modern history and effectively did, a rip-roaring slugfest that seesaws its way over seven games would be both appropriate and welcomed. But don’t count on it. Teams reach the NBA Finals at different points of their cycle and the Heat’s pluck and struggle and incessant energy, all the things that made neutrals fall head over heels, are beginning to catch up to them. They are in danger of being hustled out of Orlando, because the Lakers are starting to feel it and have momentum behind them that looks to be unstoppable. “I want to be mentioned in the category of champions,” Davis said following the Lakers’ Game 1 win. He may not have to wait much longer. Here’s what others have said … Stephen A. Smith, ESPN: “The Miami Heat are on the verge of getting swept if they don’t get their act together. The level of dominance you saw from the Lakers should tell you a story. It almost looks like … it was a nice run, we applaud you for your efforts, but it ends now.” Seerat Sohi, Yahoo Sports: “The playoffs are supposed to force teams to learn something about themselves. The Heat will spend Thursday studying before Game 2. Coach Erik Spoelstra is a basketball genius armed with a versatile roster, when healthy. Maybe they can muster an adjustment that teaches (Anthony) Davis a lesson or two. But so far, the only thing the playoffs have proved about Anthony Davis is that he is who he thought he was.” Rohan Nadkarni, Sports Illustrated: “Miami’s miracle run to the Finals was an anomaly. Going up 3–0 on the overall No. 1 seed doesn’t happen. A third-year big like Bam Adebayo dominating a conference finals on both ends of the floor doesn’t happen. A team without traditional superstars making the Finals—with rare exceptions—doesn’t happen. The Heat faced very little resistance in their journey to the Finals, and now the magic carpet they rode in on has been pulled out from under them.” |
