LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers appeared ready to sweep their way to a NBA title in the bubble. But then something wild happened – Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat won Game 3 Sunday night to make the series 2-1 heading into Game 4 Wednesday night.
LeBron and the Lakers played like they thought they had this thing wrapped up. Butler played the opposite of that, finishing with 40 points, 13 assists, and 11 rebounds. And then there was that snarl by Tyler Herro at the end of the game.
Now it’s a whole new series, as 2-1 is a lot different than 3-0.
One thing that stuck out from Sunday night was how LeBron left the floor with 10 seconds left in the game. The Heat were just running out the clock, so this isn’t a huge deal, but the respectful thing would have been to stay on the court until the end.
LeBron, though, was out of there early:
LeBron walked off the court with 10 seconds left. pic.twitter.com/zTvwZhHDq5
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 5, 2020
ESPN’s Mark Jackson called it “not a good look” on the broadcast and he wasn’t wrong. Again, it’s not a huge deal but the right thing would have been to stay on the floor until the final whistle.
LeBron had a one-word answer for why he left:
LeBron on if he walked off the court early because he thought the game was over or out of frustration “Both” pic.twitter.com/vH61O4rDCS
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) October 5, 2020
Again, the game was basically over. LeBron was frustrated with everything, including having to spend more time in the bubble now that this series will go at least five games.
But still, he should have stayed on the floor until the end.
You gotta think Butler will use this for even more motivation moving forward.