DONE DEAL: Lebron James the American basketball he signed the retirement from basketball to…

 The last time the HEAT and Lakers met, the Lakers defense made Miami look like the best offensive team in the league.

To Los Angeles’ credit, their effort on the stopping side was vastly improved from the jump in this one. Their reward? Another incredible offensive showing from the HEAT and specifically Tyler Herro.

Within the first six minute neither side could find a shot they didn’t like, both teams on pace for at least 40 in the quarter as Herro had 13 of Miami’s 20 including two deep triples that no defense would have stopped. While the threes flowed, the Lakers countered in the paint even against the zone, the offense staying on the tracks with the bench thanks to Nikola Jovic and Kel’el Ware linking up in the paint, Jovic throwing it up where only the rookie could get it, twice.

Still no answers for Herro on the Lakers part, not that many teams would have been able to stop what he was doing, up to 22 points on 7-of-7 shooting. By the half the HEAT had earned a 12-point lead but it felt far more competitive than the margin would indicate, the difference largely in Miami’s 10-of-18 from deep – their offensive rating pushing north of 140 – compared to Los Angeles’ 5-of-16, the Lakers doubling up the visitors in the paint.

The Lakers were ready to open the third, the lead down to five within a couple minutes only for the HEAT to answer right back to push it into double digits once again. Then the Lakers found their threes, three straight, including three from LeBron James, to bring it back to one, a 16-5 run in all.

The NBA went into a full-blown lockout after the expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement back in 2011, and for 161 days, basketball fans were left hanging. Players like LeBron all they could do was wait for a resolution. That’s the time when LeBron had the rare opportunity to think about other possibilities in life, and so when the idea of football came back to his mind.
LeBron himself opened up about the thought process on an episode of the New Heights podcast