LeBron James ‘Championship Formula: Lakers’ throttle defense, and blast from his Hight past

when LeBron James Play for Miami HeatCall them Skirmishes. Few pauses, a few dunks move in and change the game. It happens quickly and without warning, like an earthquake. James’s team is revitalized, and the opponent’s morale dampened.

To beat a team led by James usually requires discipline. Fouls at the offensive end turn into easy baskets on the other end, sloping shoulders and pointed toes. In Game 6 of the 2020 NBA Finals, Team Heat was at the wrong end of the skirmish.

The Los Angeles LakersThe progress was just four points before a minute and a half remaining in the first quarter. Less than a minute after a second it was 11, and Miami was starting to deteriorate. However, the skirmishes began in earnest when Anthony Davis Refused a Kendrick Nunn Layup four and a half minutes before the end of the first half. Block led to absurdity and 1 of Kentavius ​​Caldwell Bob, The start of the 18-2 round that gave the Lakers a 30-point lead.

Throughout the season, Los Angeles celebrates live balls. to me The championship was decided on Sunday, Put Alex Caruso In the starting lineup, he took Dwight Howard To get out of circulation and increase their defensive pressure. The Miami attack, which was extremely beautiful at its best, appeared suddenly sluggish, as a result of the Lakers defending agitated like his tired legs. The Heat diverted the ball to more than a fifth of their possessions in the first half, and whenever they missed the edge, Los Angeles raced down the field to punish them.

Caruso called it “the example of basketball in the Lakers”. Kyle Kuzma He described him as “crazy”, “unbelievable” and “probably the most locked of this season”.

“We were everywhere,” Los Angeles coach Frank Vogel said. “We carried out our coverage perfectly. We did it with strength, passion and active hands, and we brought back the basketball. That dominated the whole match because, with our ability to take a break, we stop without errors, other teams did not have a chance to go out on the break.”

For more than a full calendar year, Vogel told the Lakers he wanted them to be the physique of the NBA team. They have defined themselves as defense, which is a stark contrast to any of James’ teams since leaving Miami in 2014 – throughout the regular season, they’ve been online, connected, and committed to getting stopping points. Teams that failed to come back against them got burned. They finished third in the Defensive Ranking and 3rd in the opponent’s turnover, and according to Cleaning The Glass, they ranked 1st in the Carry Offense.

Some fools I thought Los Angeles wouldn’t reach the finals. The Achilles heel was supposed to be a half court crime, as the Lakers finished 19th in that category in the regular season. Not only was it that their shootings were questionable and the play industry around them fell almost completely to James and Rajan Rondo, it was that their attack wasn’t singing the way most aesthetically pleasing folks do. Los Angeles didn’t flow as smoothly from movement to movement as its opponent in the Finals. It didn’t cause chaos and confusion with the movement outside the ball. The Lakers could create advantages and unlock shots against steady defenses, but they didn’t make it seem easy.

Los Angeles’ solution to this was simple: Make life totally miserable due to opposing attack, and run like hell.

Unlike their playoff opponents, the Lakers did not have a goalkeeper who could routinely perform 35-foot pull-ups or triples backwards, nor did they have central teams separately. Their attack in the half of the field improved in the qualifiers, but even in the finals, it got fickle at times. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, nor did it reverse a larger trend around the NBA trend.

However, the Los Angeles defense does. He would not have progressed beyond the second round if he had not seated on the traditional senior bench and Davis played exclusively in the center, a disturbing force as in the league, the same move Vogel did in the sixth match of the Finals. The Lakers didn’t have to sound like the Heat because they could prevent the heat from looking like the heat. Throughout the season, they’re shrinking the floor, blocking aisles and making the stars uncomfortable. They knew exactly who they were.

“You can have a talented team, even a talented defensive team, but if not everyone is working together and not everyone is accepted and seeing the value of being able to strangle an opponent and withdraw their strength, you are not going to do it to reach that level,” Vogel said. “But our guys saw the value too early. They bought in.”

The Sunday Skirmish in the Second Quarter was part of the 41–15 series that began in the late first quarter. If the attack sounds familiar, it is because the Lakers did something similar in the first game. Miami kicked off the series tempo and advanced early, but everything flipped after nearly six minutes. Davis turned to center, and the Lakers finished the first quarter in a 19-3 round turning into an unbelievable 75-30.

After that, James said they did just that by playing more physical and paying attention to detail.

“We started to play on our capabilities,” he said. “We’re starting to fly. We’re starting to get defensive points.”

Season’s story.