NBA: Los Angeles Lakers lose on LeBron James’ return to Miami

The win against the Orlando Magic the day before remains an outlier for the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James conceded the fifth defeat in six games on his return to Miami with purple-and-gold. At 98:112, the Lakers too often stand in their own way.

Miami Heat (18-17) – Los Angeles Lakers (14-21) 112:98 (BOXSCORE)

The 26 turnovers for the Hollywood guests marked a sad season high for the Lakers. Miami mercilessly exploited their mistakes for 31 direct counters and only conceded 6 turnovers themselves. Although the home side struggled with scoring in the final period, fueling a Lakers comeback 22 points down, LA missed too many good chances and ended up giving away the ball too often.

This also applied to LeBron James (6 turnovers), who otherwise led his team with a strong 27 points (10/18 FG), 9 rebounds and 6 assists against his former employer, with whom he won two rings in 2012 and 2013. Dennis Schröder helped with 15 points in 4 turnovers, Russell Westbrook also collected 15 points and 8 assists from the bench, although the odds were poor (6/16 FG, 2/7 threesomes).

Jimmy Butler was the best man on the Heat side, filling the box score with 27 points (11/18 FG), 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 6 steals. Bam Adebayo secured a double-double (23 and 14 rebounds), while Tyler Herro still scored 18 points on 6/17 from the field after a poor start. In addition, the guard distributed 9 assists with only one ball loss.

For the eighth time in a row, Miami had to make an adjustment in the starting five, against the Lakers Kyle Lowry had to sit out for personal reasons, but Butler and Adebayo returned. At the Lakers, LeBron reported fit (ankle) in good time, and his presence was immediately noticeable.

Los Angeles Lakers sleep through third quarter

After the king’s three-pointer didn’t want to fall in the past few games (0/11), he was successful twice in the early minutes from a distance. The soon to be 38-year-old accounted for 10 of the first 13 Lakers points. However, when he went on the bench, Miami started a 9-0 run. The home side’s defense forced numerous ball losses (6), which they converted into even more direct counters (13:0 points off turnover). Accordingly, the heat went into the second section at 33:25.

On the other hand, the heat didn’t work out in terms of shooting in this phase (2/13 threes at the start), LeBron brought the Lakers back into the game and even put them back in the lead with an and-one. Then Herro finally woke up a bit for the heat, Butler put some distance between his team and the guests again. At the break he had 19 points, Miami was 61:52 in the lead.

With the exception of a determined and-one from Schröder, LA started the second half weakly. The Lakers made life difficult for themselves with a lot of ball losses, some of which were unnecessary, while Miami, on the other hand, was not disturbed by a temporary zone defense by the guests and increased to +22. They also made good use of the non-existent rim protection, for example Adebayo with some nice slams. 95:78 Miami after three quarters.