The Miami Heat came into the NBA Finals with a 12-3 record in the playoffs, but with several of their key players dealing with injuries, the Heat haven't really had a fair shot in this series. The injury to Goran Dragic has been especially difficult to overcome and may have cost the Heat any chance at winning the title.
On the daily Locked On Heat Podcast, host David Ramil explains why the absence of Goran Dragic has been so big for the Miami Heat:
David Ramil: Goran has been one of those fierce competitors willing to do whatever is necessary. We saw that throughout the playoffs, he was Miami's leading scorer for so much of it and a lot of that has to do with his aggressiveness, his competitiveness, his fire. Everything that we love about Goran Dragic over the past few years seems to have magnified during the playoff run.
Unfortunately, without him there, nobody's been able to match Jimmy's intensity. That's not a knock on Bam Adebayo. I think, like Jimmy, Adebayo is not a guy who's going to be putting up a lot of points. He's not that kind of center. He's not that kind of player just yet. He can be at some point, but without a consistent outside shot, it's just not his strength. You're not going to rely on Bam for 20-plus points a game.
It's a great way of building a team of consistent, solid, all-around players that try their best and work hard and will outwork their opponents. You've got guys like Jimmy and Bam and Goran and everybody else on this roster who contributes and plays hard, but you still need somebody to go to for easy scoring. You don't have that on the roster.
Even Jimmy, as good as he is, unless he's being super aggressive and constantly going and attacking the basket, which he did not do, you're just not going to find those points very easily. That was something that I was concerned with early on, as I'm watching this and watching that energy, it was fantastic, I can't reiterate enough how good that energy was early on when they were switching and rotating on everything defensively. Then, somehow, he just can't keep that energy output going. It's just not sustainable. It's not realistic to think that you can do that for 48 minutes.
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