Watch a full replay of Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sky Sports Arena on Saturday at 1pm
Saturday 3 October 2020 09:52, UK
Jimmy Butler said he and his Miami Heat team-mates have just got to play harder after falling to a Game 2 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.
Butler finished with 25 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds for Miami, who played without injured starters Bam Adebayo (neck and left shoulder) and Goran Dragic (torn left plantar fascia).
"Maybe we have just got to play a lot harder, to know that is how we are going to squeak out a win in the end," Butler said. "There really isn't too much to say to our guys. We understand what we have to do."
The Heat scored 39 points in the third quarter and that was only good enough to cut a 14-point halftime deficit to a 10-point hole going into the fourth, mainly because they just couldn't get enough stops.
"Look, I love these guys. I love the way we compete," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We have to figure out how to overcome this and get over the top."
Game 3 takes place in the early hours of Monday morning (12:30am), live on Sky Sports Arena.
It's unclear if Dragic, Adebayo or both could return; each lobbied to play Friday night, before the Heat had to make the call to keep them sidelined.
It is also unclear how much it will matter.
This is the 24th time that LeBron James has had a 2-0 series lead; his teams in Cleveland, Miami and Los Angeles are 23-0 in the previous instances. And the last time the Lakers franchise wasted a 2-0 lead was in the 1969 Finals against Boston.
Kelly Olynyk scored 24 points for the Heat, who trailed by as many as 32 in Game 1 and - even without Adebayo and Dragic - were far more competitive in Game 2. Miami got within nine points in the fourth, but never got close enough to truly put a scare into the Lakers.
Tyler Herro had 17, Kendrick Nunn scored 13 and Jae Crowder had 12 for the Heat. Herro and Meyers Leonard took Dragic's and Adebayo's spots in the starting line-up.
Herro, at 20 years and 256 days, became the youngest player to start an NBA Finals game. He did so eight days younger than Magic Johnson was when he started Game 1 of the title series for the Lakers against the Philadelphia 76ers on May 4 1980.
"We had it right there on the edge, but we just couldn't push it over," Olynyk said. "We can build on that."
The Heat have rallied from a 2-0 series hole only once in eight previous tries, that one being the 2006 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.
