Video Credit: NBA

New FSM Essential Recap: Lakers vs Heat – Game 12

Franchise Sports Media

Los Angeles Lakers (7-5) | Miami Heat (7-4)

 

The Los Angeles Lakers fought their way to their second straight overtime victory against the Miami Heat 120-117.

 

Lakers vs Heat
Photo Credit: Andrew D. Bernstein

The game began with the Heat gaining possession first and putting up two free throw points thanks to Jimmy Butler drawing a shooting foul. The quarter started very slow for both teams, as the score was 3-2 in favor of Los Angeles after four minutes. Bam Adebayo made a dunk to give Miami the lead. Halfway through the quarter, the teams combined for just 14 points with no real momentum for either team.

The scoring pace began to pick up after the halfway point of the quarter, as the teams traded basket for basket to not allow the opposition to get very far out in front. The Lakers turned the momentum in their favor late in the quarter after the Heat’s Caleb Martin made it a 20-19 Miami lead. Avery Bradley hit back-to-back threes to put Los Angeles up by five. Tyler Herro hit a three of his own to cut the lead to two, but Bradley responded with his third three in a row. Herro ended the quarter with a mid-range jumper. The score after one was 28-25 in favor of the Lakers.

Butler went down with an ankle sprain to start the second quarter, leaving Miami without their best player. Wayne Ellington began the second quarter’s scoring with a three to continue the hot three-point streak for Los Angeles. The Heat answered back with a layup from Adebayo and a three from Kyle Lowry. The Heat regained the lead off a Udonis Haslem jumper, only for Carmelo Anthony to respond with a layup. Malik Monk joined the scoring party by adding six points to what turned out to be an 8-0 run by the Lakers. The run ended with tradeoffs from Russell Westbrook and P.J. Tucker, but not before the lead grew to six.

Late in the second quarter, the game turned into a three-point shootout preview as threes from Lowry and Herro tied the game at 47 after Ellington had hit his second three of the game. Bradley untied the game with yet another three. The game remained feisty as the quarter came close to its end. Miami regained the lead once more thanks to Omer Yurtseven getting points in the paint and from the free-throw line.

 

Ellington drilled another three with 29.4 seconds left, but Duncan Robinson responded with a three to give the Heat a 57-55 lead as the halftime buzzer sounded at Staples Center.

 

Lakers vs Heat
Photo Credit: ABC-LA

Westbrook started the second half the same way both teams ended it as he hit a three, only for Herro to counter with another three-pointer. Anthony Davis, who was contained for a lot of the first half, hit a mid-range shot, followed by a Kent Bazemore jumper to go back up by two. Once again, the Heat did not let the deficit last long as Adebayo won the tradeoff with Davis to tie it at 64. The game got tied at 71 with 4:06 left in the quarter when the Heat began to generate more momentum by using foul trouble as a pick.

Adebayo hit four straight free throws and a jumper to put Miami up by six. Los Angeles responded with Ellington and Monk cutting the gap to one before Robinson hit a three and Lowry driving the lead back to six with a layup. The third quarter ended with more trading as the Heat maintained the lead heading into the fourth quarter by a score of 86-82.

The fourth quarter saw a spark from Monk as he began the quarter with five points to put Los Angeles back up. The Lakers kept the small lead until there was 8:21 left in the quarter when Herro hit a three. Free throws and aggression from Tucker gave Miami their biggest lead of the night at 102-93 after five minutes in the frame. The Lakers began to fight back with four minutes left as Monk hit a three to cut the lead to four. Bradley followed a Lowry layup by adding yet another three to his hot shooting night. Westbrook hit a jumper to cut the deficit to one.

 

Lakers vs Heat
Photo Credit: Ashley Landis/AP

With 52 seconds left and the game tied, Westbrook came up big with a pull-up shot to go up by two. Herro responded with his own pull-up shot to tie the game again. Westbrook had his own answer for Herro by hitting a Kobe Bryant fadeaway jumper to regain the lead.

After a Heat timeout, Herro tried to hit a game-tying shot. The shot was no good, but Tucker immediately pounced by throwing down a putback slam to deny the Lakers a rebound. Westbrook melted the remaining 23.5 seconds to try and end the game, but his three-pointer went long. Davis’ putback attempt was also no good, sending this tight game to overtime.

In the extra frame, Adebayo threw down a dunk following a steal. The ensuing Lakers possession ended with a Monk three, putting the purple and gold back in front by one. Almost two minutes later, Monk hit a floater, followed by a Davis layup off an Anthony steal to make it a five-point lead. Miami did not give up yet as Adebayo followed a Robinson free throw with a layup to cut the Lakers’ lead to two with 23 seconds left.

With 18.7 seconds left, Adebayo fouled out of the game, but the Lakers gave the ball right back with a five-second violation. Herro put up a three with nine seconds left in overtime but came up empty. Anthony grabbed the rebound and took an intentional foul from Robinson. Anthony hit the second of two free throws and made it a three-point lead.

The Heat inbounded with 6.5 seconds left after a timeout, needing a three to force another overtime. Herro tried again to hit a three but came up short again. Westbrook committed a loose ball foul with 2.6 seconds remaining, giving Dewayne Dedmon a chance to hit two free throws to make it a one-point lead. Dedmon missed both free throws and Bradley came down with the rebound to seal the game. The Lakers fought tooth and nail all night with the Heat and pulled off another overtime victory by a final score of 120-117.

 

Game Notes:

 

The Lakers had six players score double-digit points, led by Monk with 27 points off the bench. Westbrook got another triple-double, scoring 25 points and having 12 rebounds and 14 assists. Davis ended up with a double-double with 24 points and 13 rebounds, while Bradley had 17 points including five threes in the game. Ellington and Anthony each added 12 from the bench, with all of Ellington’s points coming from downtown hitting four out of six shots.

The Heat had five players score double-digit points. Adebayo led all scorers with 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds despite fouling out in overtime. Herro had 27 points and five threes in 42 minutes off the bench. Lowry had a rough shooting night scoring just 18 points on 5-14 shooting, while Robinson had 12 points and Tucker had a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.

 

The next Lakers game will be Friday at Staples Center as they continue their five game homestand against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The game will begin at 7:30 and can be seen on Spectrum SportsNet.

 

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– Matt Dobbs – Franchise Sports Media

Follow Matt on Twitter @RecordBowlerFSM

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