The Lakers and Miami touch on goal

Aurélien Canot, Media365, published on Tuesday, May 09, 2023 at 08:09

The Lakers and Miami are only one victory away from validating their ticket to the conference finals in the NBA play-offs. After their new victory, Monday evening at home against the champion Golden State (104-101) and New York (109-101), the two teams lead 3-1 in their respective series.

The Lakers and Miami are almost there. Already well into their respective series of these NBA play-off conference semi-finals before game 4, the two teams took another step towards qualification on Monday evening by winning again at home against the champion Golden State (104-101) and New York (109-101). The Californians of LeBron James and the Heat of Jimmy Butler, who both lead 3-1 before Game 5, thus only need a victory to climb into the conference finals. Miami, the first, confirmed that he did not have much to fear from these Knicks by again dominating quite clearly New Yorkers who have, admittedly, raised the cursor somewhat compared to their first outings in this half- final, but not enough for all that to hope to curb the momentum of a Heat in every way irresistible since its defeat in the first match of the play-in against Atlanta. Once again, the Floridians, carried by the inevitable Butler (27 points, 10 assists, 6 rebounds) and by a still decisive Bam Adebayo (23 points, 13 rebounds, 2 assists), have evolved a tone au- above the New Yorkers despite the efforts of Jalen Brunson (32 points, 11 assists) and Julius Randle (20 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists), even if the latter took the water defensively (6 faults and as many lost balls) . The Lakers had more difficulty to also take off, against the Warriors.

Lonnie Walker IV, the surprise guest

The 17-time titled franchise had to wait for money time to force the decision, and at the same time remain undefeated on its floor in these play-offs. In this game, Lonnie Walker IV was the most brilliant, with 15 points scored in the last quarter coming off the bench, he who had not scored a single one before – before him, only Kobe Bryant had succeeded this feat – during this match 4 which saw his team show up to twelve lengths behind. Despite a fairly incredible loss for him at three points (3 of 14), Stephen Curry (31 points, 14 assists, 10 rebounds) and his family then thought they could bring down “King James” (27 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists) , Anthony Davis (23 points, 15 rebounds, 2 assists) and their teammates, and return at the same time to height. Instead, the defending champions find themselves on the precipice.