Miami Heat's narrow win over the LA Lakers meant that the Best of 7-game NBA Finals is very much alive and heads into the sixth game on Sunday with the Lakers still having a 3-2 lead.
Even as LeBron James produced an all-round show on the court for the LA Lakers with a staggering 40 points with 13 rebounds and seven assists, Heat came out on top with their forward Jimmy Butler again headlining their win with 35 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists and five steals. Butler was also in superlative form with his free throws, ending up with a cent percent record with 12 on 12.
It was man for man, play for play as both teams were in a neck to neck battle all through the fourth quarters. Heat took a single point lead over Lakers at the end of the first quarter with scoreline reading 25-24.
The Eastern Conference champs went into the half way stage of the match with a 6-point lead as the second quarter ended 60-54. The Heat once again outscored the Lakers 28-26 in the 3rd quarter to head into the fourth and final quarter with a 6-point lead. The Lakers happened to net 26 points as compared to Heat's 23 in the 4th quarter but that was not enough to prevent Heat from sealing the game 111-108.
While Anthony Davis had another good game for the Lakers in the finals with 28 points and 12 rebounds, Duncan Robinson was only second to Butler with his 26-point effort for the winning Heat team. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was the Lakers’ third-best scorer with 16 points.
The support cast for Heat was not bad either as Kendrick Nunn scored 14 points, Bam Adebayo netted 13 points and Tyler Herro (12) and Jae Crowder (11) also made their bit of offensive contributions.
Earlier On October 6, LA Lakers had taken a 3-1 lead in the best of 7-game Finals after beating Miami Heat 102-96 in Game 4 of the series played in Orlando, Florida.
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