LeBron’s dominant fourth quarter leads Lakers past Heat. Miami down to its last chance
The Miami Heat had spent nearly the entire second half playing from behind Tuesday and it was finally even with 6:27 left when Jimmy Butler finished a contested layup over LeBron James. For the second straight game, the Heat could win an NBA Finals game by winning the final minutes.
James needed just 19 seconds on the other end. The superstar crashed the basket for an and-one just 19 seconds after Butler tied the game and the Los Angeles Lakers jumped back ahead for good. James — with the help of two offensive rebounds and a key three-pointer by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — did virtually everything on offense for the next four minutes to beat Miami, 102-96, and send the Heat to the brink of elimination.
The Lakers, who now hold a 3-1 series lead, can win the 2020 NBA Finals on Friday in Game 5 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
James scored seven straight for Los Angeles after Butler tied the game, then assisted on a Caldwell-Pope three and found the Los Angeles combo guard for another driving layup to turn an 83-83 tie into a 95-88 lead in 4:06. He finished the fourth quarter with 11 points, four rebounds and four assists — with four points coming after teammates’ offensive rebounds — to close out Game 4 in Lake Buena Vista.
James overcame a rocky first half to score 28 points, grab 12 rebounds and dish out eight assists, and Butler couldn’t match his superhuman Game 3 effort, instead finishing with 24 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
Even the addition of Bam Adebayo to the lineup after the post player missed two straight games with a neck injury couldn’t lift Miami to even the series inside the 2020 NBA Bubble.
“It felt like a Finals game,” James told ESPN after scoring 11 points with four rebounds and four assists in the fourth quarter. “It felt like both teams were desperate.”
Both Adebayo and Goran Dragic, after missing the past two games because of injuries, made a push to take the court Tuesday in Central Florida. Miami upgraded Adebayo from doubtful to questionable Monday, then trotted him out its starting center Tuesday.
Dragic went through a pregame workout at Walt Disney World before the Heat ruled him out. Miami wasn’t at full strength, but it was closer and it helped.
Adebayo took the court for the first time since straining his neck in the third quarter of Game 1 on Wednesday and began the game defending Anthony Davis.
He forced a miss on the opening possession, then finished a layup on the other end for the first points of the game.
Foul trouble limited him to just seven minutes in the first quarter, but Butler found a recipe to succeed without his fellow All-Star in Game 3 on Sunday and followed up his 40-point triple-double with 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting in the first quarter to keep the Heat within 27-22.
Butler, who played 45 minutes in both Games 2 and 3, could head to the bench despite the five-point deficit to start the second quarter, though, as Adebayo still gave Miami an on-court star. The Heat, which was outscored by 11 in Butler’s five minutes on the bench Sunday, flipped a five-point deficit into a 34-31 lead when he returned with 9:06 left in the second quarter.
Those two combined for 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting in the first half. The rest of their teammates, scored just 25 points on 8-of-28 shooting, so the Lakers took a 49-47 lead into halftime despite James and Davis each scoring just eight points, with James turning the ball over five times.
Adebayo finished with 15 points and seven rebounds in his return, while Davis heated up in the second half to score 22 points with nine rebounds, four assists and four blocks.
In the second half, James came alive. With 8:18 left in the third, the point forward pulled up and drained a 29-foot three-pointer to put the Lakers ahead 55-54 and Los Angeles never trailed again. He scored nine points in the third quarter, going 3 for 3 from the field and 2 for 2 from three-point range, with four rebounds and two assists.
Miami finally knotted the score at 85-85 with 6:27 left in the fourth, when Butler drove and finished over James. The superstar answered immediately.
He responded with an and-one 19 seconds later and followed with a pair of free throws following an offensive rebound by Lakers point guard Rajon Rondo.
In Game 3, Butler scored or assisted on 18 of the Heat’s next 20 points after Los Angeles took its own lead of the fourth quarter. In Game 4, James did his version, scoring or assisting to move within one win of his fourth championship and the Lakers’ 17th.
“We’ll take this, learn from this,” Butler said. “We can’t lose another one.”
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 11:44 PM.
