Riley wants to beat LeBron so much, but Heat’s Game 1 loss in NBA Finals a reality check | Opinion
Oh, you know he wants this, the godfather does. In a Hall of Fame life given to basketball that has included nine championship rings as player, coach or executive, this NBA Finals sets up as Pat Riley’s career opus, his crowning achievement.
He might even admit it someday.
His Miami Heat vs. the Los Angeles Lakers — the team he put into the stratosphere with “Showtime,” the team now run by LeBron James — is on so many levels the series Riley, 75, needs to win more than any other.
It isn’t about his legacy. That is set and secure.
No, this is personal.
The road to Riley’s ultimate satisfaction grew longer Wednesday night. Steeper.
Heat star Jimmy Butler had insisted he didn’t consider Miami to be the underdog in this series.
May be time to recalibrate that estimation?
The Lakers handled Miami in Finals Game 1 116-98 in the Orlando bubble, putting an instant burden on the Heat entering Friday night’s Game 2 of the best-of-7 series.
It had been almost a full calendar year — 345 days — since this basketball season began. Finally, we have an NBA Finals.
Miami led early by 13 points, 25-12, and the Lakers shrugged it off with nonchalance, as if there were never a doubt.
It was as lopsided as the final score suggests.
Miami shot less than 40 percent until a late run. The Heat were outshot from three-point range, a big surprise. The Lakers’ rebounding advantage was enormous. Anthony Davis scored 34. Bam Adebayo disappeared. Goran Dragic wasn’t much better. Both left injured. Butler and Kendrick Nunn showed up for Miami, and that was about it.
LeBron (ho hum) had 25 points, 13 rebound and nine assists in the what seems like the 15th year of his prime.
If coach Erik Spoelstra is all that, Miami will need his magic adjustments for Game 2.
The Heat had gone 12-3 in this pandemic postseason, sweeping Indiana, steamrolling No. 1 seed Milwaukee and having its way with Boston.
This will be different.
Because the Lakers are a cut above. And because it’s personal.
This is about that day in July 2014, when LeBron knew he was going to leave the Heat, but summoned Riley to meet him in Las Vegas. It was in a hotel room. A few of James’ friends and business associates were there. A World Cup soccer game was on in the background, a distraction. At one point Riley asked if the sound could be turned down.
It was a cross-country embarrassment to the Heat’s president. Disrespect. Humiliation. James, after leading Miami to four consecutive Finals with two titles, waited until the last moment to tell Miami he was leaving, impeding the Heat’s efforts to replace him in free agency.
It felt a lot like sabotage. To many in the Heat organization, it still does.
The two men play nice publicly now, mostly, each saying this Finals is not about old hurt or lingering animus.
They’re both lying.
In the Riley era in Miami the Heat has won three championships under two different core groups, Dwayne Wade with Shaquille O’Neal and then the Big 3. Now, the Butler/Bam Adebayo Heat would be the third iteration to win for Riley. Symbolically, in its first Finals since 2014, the last year of the Big 3, a Miami title would be proof the Heat had survived LeBron leaving, and moved on.
There is no questioning the Lakers have the two best players in this Finals in LeBron and Anthony Davis. But there also should be no questioning Miami has the deeper, more balanced roster overall.
Two vs. Team. Just another layer of this thing.
Can the coalescence of all of Riley’s Heat culture rise up to defeat two superstars?
Miami is only the fifth team to reach the Finals after having three different players be leading scorers in the first three rounds (Dragic, Butler, then Adebayo). All four of the previous teams have won championships. Beyond those three players, Miami also has a 20-year-old kid who put up 37 on the Celtics in Tyler Herro.
Still the Heat entered as a clear betting underdog, including in Game 1. The usual place. They were not expected to get past Boston in the Eastern finals. They were certainly not expected to oust No. 1 seed Milwaukee in the semifinals. Heck, there was debate whether Miami would even get past Indiana in the first round.
The Lakers were anointed to be here from the start but the Heat was the 11th favorite to win it all, also-rans, before the season started. Lakers were 2-0 vs. Miami during the season. ESPN’s Basketball Power Index declared a 67 percent likelihood L.A. would win the Finals.
Miami’s 75-1 preseason odds of winning the championship were the longest of any team to reach the Finals in 30 years.
Wednesday night’s Game 1 made all of that seem about right. Made Miami look like the underdog most folks figured.
It might still be a long series.
Riley might still have the last word on LeBron for that July 2014 meeting in Las Vegas that left the Heat godfather angrier than he has ever been.
After Wednesday night, the onus is on Miami to prove there’s still a real shot at that.
