Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo, Goran Dragic doubtful for Game 3

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

The Miami Heat will likely rely on Kendrick Nunn and Kelly Olynyk in Game 3 of the NBA Finals with Adebayo and Dragic listed as doubtful.

But while most expect Dragic to be out, Adebayo told reporters that he plans to play in Game 3.

“Yes, I believe I’ll be in the lineup,” Adebayo said. “I’m feeling better. I believe I’ll play.”

While Adebayo’s availability remains to be a question ahead of Game 3, he has been included in the active list.

The Heat has sorely missed Adebayo’s presence on the boards where the Lakers dominated them in Game 2, giving up 16 offensive rebounds.

Another area where Adebayo can help is defending Anthony Davis who has been terrorizing Miami’s zone defense.

Without Adebayo, the Heat had to rely on Kelly Olynyk and the undersized Jae Crowder to defend Davis, which is ineffective to say the least.

As for the Lakers, they feel that they can still improve on their performance.

Anthony Davis was particularly not happy with how they let Miami cut their 15-point lead down to 10 heading into the fourth quarter of Game 2, an observation which head coach Frank Vogel agreed with.

“This team has shown in both games that they are able to fight back,” Anthony Davis said. “Even when they are down 20, 30, whatever it is, they are able to fight back and make plays. So we can’t get too high, especially with this team. They didn’t even have two of their top scorers, two of their best players. They always have that next-man-up mentality. They come every night, they play hard, they play physical, they play aggressive.”