What. A. Game. Miami tried to convince you: They weren’t going away. “We don’t give a shit what everybody else thinks,” Erik Spoelstra said this week. “If you want something badly enough, you figure it out.” The Heat wanted this one. Badly. Jimmy Butler posted 35 points, 12-rebounds and 11 assists in 47 minutes. Duncan Robinson scored 26 points, powered by seven three-pointers. Kendrick Nunn, part of Spoelstra’s seven-man rotation, scored 14 points.
Miami had several chances to fold. The Lakers erased a double-digit fourth quarter deficit to squeeze out a three-point lead midway through the period.