Miami Heat had a treat in store for NBA fans on Sunday as they promised a Game 5 surety. The 32-year-old franchise turned heads with their offensive play against a big Lakers side. They took lessons from the other two matches and corrected all the wrongs.

LeBron James was yet again shy of scoring a triple-double, just as he was in the other two games where the Lakers emerged victorious. He was 25/13/09 in game 1, 33/09/09 in game 2, and 25/10/08 in game 3. For him, every quarter aside from the last one was good. The last quarter and especially the final eight minutes was when the Heat took off.

LeBron James could not help but show some respect to Jimmy Butler’s name!

During the game, there were moments where LeBron James and Jimmy Butler exchanged words. While it wasn’t exactly a brawl, it appeared like they were in no mood to tone down the belligerence. However, after the game, LeBron was all praise for Butler. He said, “Love it. Love it. One of the best competitors we have in our game. … I don’t know how many more opportunities I’m going to have so to be able to go against a fierce competitor like that is something I look back on when I’m done playing.”

LeBron had five turnovers in the first half and three in the next. These are startling numbers considering he had only two turnovers in the first two games combined. The Heat did a good job of taming him and crushing Anthony Davis.

Everything kept getting better for the Miami Heat

In Q1, center Meyers Leonard did a decent job and showed good resiliency. The Lakers as a unit fell short as they had 10 turnovers in the first nine minutes alone. There were visible miscommunications in the team as they could not capitalize on the possessions as well as the Heat did.

In Q2, Anthony Davis attracted three fouls, and it seemed like nothing was working for the big man who has been a force in the post-season. The Lakers did pick their rhythm once they were 71-83 down as they closed the gap and took the lead to reach 91-89. But the last eight minutes totally belonged to the Heat as it was all misses for LeBron and his side after that. Jimmy Butler’s triple-double in 45 minutes of hard work will set the tone for the remaining series that will now be more intense than ever.