The Lakers will face the Eastern Conference version of themselves in the Heat on Wednesday.
The Lakers will make the third stop of their four-game road trip in Miami where they will face the Heat on Wednesday. This will be the first match between both teams this season.
Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Miami Heat
When: 4:30 p.m. PT, Dec 4
Where: Kaseya Center
Watch: NBA TV, Spectrum SportsNet
If there’s an Eastern Conference version of this current Lakers team, it’s no other than the Heat.
Watch these two teams play and you’ll see the similarities in how they perform and approach games, how mediocre they are, the fact both have an aging superstar, a brilliant defensive anchor — although Anthony Davis is miles better than Bam Adebayo offensively — a flawed but serviceable backcourt and how their inconsistencies are the reason why they can’t seem to be contenders in their respective conferences.
The Heat — who are currently 9-10 and the No. 7 seed — have won games because of their defense, which ranks 10th best in the league. It’s their offense that’s actually been hurting them as they average just 110.1 points per game, 21st in the league, led by Tyler Herro’s 23.7 points per game.
But for all their flaws on the offensive side of the ball, the Heat have always given the Lakers problems, especially since it’s been well-documented that Jimmy Butler loves playing against LeBron James. Besides that, this Heat team always plays hard and given the fact that they’ll be at home on Wednesday against the Lakers, expect another scrappy game that will most likely go down the wire.
Here are the matchups worth looking forward to:
Bam is the type of physical big that can give AD problems, but the latter has also outplayed the former a handful of times. They’re both going to be very important for their respective teams tomorrow as not only will they have to take responsibility of anchoring their squad’s defense but also containing each other offensively.
The key for AD is to make sure Bam is limited to just his average of 15.6 points per game or fewer. It will also be nice if the Lakers can return to AD being the focal point of their offense — a strategy Los Angeles has gone away from as of late.
Perhaps the uptick in James’ usage and touches could be the reason for his lackluster performance as of late. But since L.A. has been struggling, it would be nice to go back to what helped them win games in the first place to start the season.
Anthony Davis' usage rate over the 10-4 start: 31.2%
— Jason Timpf (@_JasonLT) December 3, 2024
Anthony Davis' usage rate over the 2-5 stretch: 26.7%
LeBron James' usage rate over the 10-4 start: 26.4%
LeBron James' usage rate over the 2-5 stretch: 30.5%
The Lakers will not only have to contain a three-level scorer in Herro but also match his production. I personally would be more confident about this matchup if Austin Reaves is ready to go, but he’s still questionable.
So if AR doesn’t play, the Lakers will have to depend on D’Angelo Russell, former Heat guard Gabe Vincent, Dalton Knecht and Max Christie — who all didn’t play well in the loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
If L.A. can contain the Heat’s best scorer, outrebound them and outplay their flawed offense, there’s a good chance they pick up a much-needed win. As both these teams navigate their way around their up and down season thus far, let’s see which squad gets back in the winning column on Wednesday.
You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.
