The Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers met in the 2020 NBA Finals to cap off a historic, strange season. The Lakers, led by LeBron James, took home the title. Since then, it hasn't been the smoothest sailing for both teams.
The Lakers have looked like a mess this season and last. The Heat, though, have bounced back from a bad season and look like a potential Eastern Conference contender again despite injuries to key players. Ahead of their second matchup of the season with the Lakers, they broke down how they see the Finals.
Erik Spoelstra said that he thinks about that series often, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald:
“I think any time you have an opportunity to compete at the highest level and compete in that final round, you can see how great the competition is and how much is required to be able to get over the top,” Spoelstra said. “I’m just really grateful that we had that experience.”
Most of the Heat's key players from 2020 had never been in the Finals, making the loss a valuable lesson for them. Bam Adebayo said that there is a serious hunger to return to the biggest stage.
“I think it’s great for us because we’ve been there, we’ve gotten there and we know what it takes to get there,” Adebayo said. “I feel like that’s the biggest lesson in life is experience. So just having that experience, you always want to get that feeling back again. We all feel like we came up short, so the biggest thing for us is finding a way to get back and come away with a different outcome.”
The Heat and Lakers squaring off the Finals would have a different feel to it if it were to happen again.
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