Down 2-0 in Finals, Heat’s Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic doubtful for Game 3 vs. Lakers
Miami Heat players and coaches don’t care if people think the NBA Finals are effectively over.
Trailing LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers 0-2, the Heat faces a steep uphill climb. James owns a perfect 23-0 all-time record in playoff series that his team has won the first two games in, and 19 of those 23 series ended in either four or five games.
“We don’t give a (expletive) what everybody else thinks,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said in advance of Sunday’s Game 3 (7:30 p.m., ABC). “What will it take? Whatever is necessary. It’s as simple as that. If you want something badly enough, you’ll figure it out. Our group is extremely stubborn, persistent, and we just need to figure out how to overcome this opponent.”
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If the Heat is able to get starting center Bam Adebayo and/or starting guard Goran Dragic back from injury, that would certainly help its chances of rallying in the series. Miami outscored Los Angeles by 17 points in the eight minutes that the trio of Jimmy Butler, Adebayo and Dragic played together in Game 1 of the Finals before Adebayo and Dragic went down with injuries during that contest and missed Game 2.
But on Saturday’s injury report, the Heat again listed Adebayo (neck strain) and Dragic (torn plantar fascia in left foot) as doubtful for Game 3 on Sunday. Both players are working and lobbying hard to return to the court before the end of the Finals.
“Every second before the game,” Butler said when asked how much Adebayo and Dragic are pushing to play through their injuries. “They want to play. They do. But coach understands that you got to take care of your guys. You don’t want it to get too bad. But, yeah, we need those guys, we want those guys out there with us. But it’s just bigger than basketball. We want them to have a long career and whenever they do get back in this series, we want them to be ready to go.”
Adebayo, 23, told Yahoo Sports after Friday’s loss that he hopes to play in Game 3: “Yes, I believe I’ll be in the lineup. I’m feeling better. I believe I’ll play.” But it remains to be seen if that will be the case, with Adebayo listed as doubtful for the game.
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With Dragic’s injury, a lot of it depends on the extent of the plantar fascia tear. The plantar fascia, located on the bottom of the foot, is a thick band of connective tissue that runs from heel to toe and supports and stabilizes the arch of the foot.
“If it’s a relatively large tear, I would say he would be out for the series,” said Dr. Kenneth Jung, a foot and ankle consultant who has worked with the Lakers, Dodgers and other Los Angeles-based sports teams. “If it’s a larger tear, too, there’s a risk that it can go on to a complete rupture with playing on it. At the same time, even if it’s a small tear, if he attempts to play on it then he’s at risk of sustaining a full rupture.
“With a larger tear, I would expect that his symptoms are worse, too. So he probably wouldn’t feel that he would be able to get back as quickly.”
Jung said a complete rupture of the plantar fascia would keep Dragic off the foot for “a couple months or so.” Time is the best course of treatment for the injury.
As a point of reference, guard Malcolm Brogdon missed 21 consecutive games last season (including eight playoff games) with a plantar fascia tear. But on the flip side, Heat captain Udonis Haslem tore the plantar fascia in his left foot near the end of the 2015-16 regular season and returned in five days to play through the pain in the playoffs that year.
A cortisone injection could help alleviate the paint, but Jung said “it can potentially increase the risk of progression of the rupture, too.”
A torn plantar fascia is a different and more debilitating injury than plantar fasciitis, as Jung noted that “guys have definitely played on plantar fasciitis because you’re playing on a degenerated arch ligament versus a torn arch ligament.”
If Dragic, 34, is able to return during the Finals, he’ll almost certainly be at less than full strength. Dragic, who led the Heat in usage rate in the playoffs and regular season, has averaged 19.9 points while shooting 45 percent from the field and 35.9 percent on threes, four rebounds and 4.6 assists this postseason.
“You can try to play through it,” Jung said of a torn plantar fascia. “But he’s a guard, so everything is speed and quickness. It’s not like he’s a big and lumbering guy that just has to post up in the paint. He’s going to be pushing off, cutting, jumping, jump stops and stuff like that. That’s definitely going to put high stress on that area.”
There is more optimism around the team that Adebayo will be able to return during the championship series than Dragic.
Miami needs Adebayo’s size and physicality on both ends of the floor, especially defensively. Adebayo (6-9, 255), who was voted onto the NBA’s All-Defensive Second Team this season, has averaged 17.8 points on 55.7 percent shooting, 10.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.1 steals during the playoffs.
Even without Adebayo and Dragic, the Heat turned in its most efficient offensive performance of the playoffs in Friday’s Game 2 loss with an offensive rating of 125.3 points per 100 possessions. Miami scored 114 points on an efficient 50.7 percent shooting from the field and 11-of-27 (40.7 percent) shooting on threes, and also finished 31 of 34 (91.2 percent) from the foul line.
But the Heat’s defense struggled in Game 2, as the Lakers scored 124 points on 50.5 percent shooting from the field. Miami allowed 134.8 points per 100 possessions in Game 2, which is its worst defensive rating since it allowed 135.1 points per 100 possessions in a loss to the pre-LeBron Lakers on March 1, 2018.
In half-court sets Friday, the Heat’s man-to-man defense allowed 1.5 points per possession on 28 possessions and its zone defense allowed 1.22 points per possession on 67 possessions, according to Heat.com’s Couper Moorhead.
“I like the looks that we’re taking on offense,” Butler said. “We generated enough points, maybe we get back a little bit, foul a little bit less, but the main thing is rebounding. I don’t think that we have to tell anybody that. Maybe we just got to play a lot harder and know that that’s how we’re going to squeak out a win in the end.”
The Lakers have turned 25 offensive rebounds into 37 second-chance points during the first two games of the series.
“We’ve just got to fight some more, smash and put bodies on guys,” Heat rookie guard Kendrick Nunn said. “They can’t just walk in the lane and get rebounds.”
Whether Adebayo and/or Dragic return or not, the Heat believes it still has a chance to make the Finals a competitive series. It’s that stubbornness and persistence that has helped Miami get to this point as a No. 5 seed.
“We’re never giving up,” Butler said. “We’re going to fight and we’re going to ride with this thing until the wheels fall off. It’s not over. We’re just down 0-2, so we got to do something special. We’re capable of it and I wouldn’t want to be in the trenches with any other guys except for the ones that we have.
“But like I said at the beginning of this thing, we got to play damn near perfect in order to beat those guys over there. We have yet to do it and if we don’t do it soon, it’s not going to be pretty.”
