Last time the Heat played against the Lakers, Kendrick Nunn played 36 minutes, Derrick Jones Jr played 28, Meyers Leonard played 18, and Chris Silva played 8. None of those players are in the rotation anymore.

The Heat lost that game by 3, on a blatant missed foul call

At the time, the Heat were dealing with Dion Waiters constantly being in trouble, Justise Winslow being injured and wanting to be traded, and James Johnson trying to get back into the rotation. Crowder and Iguodala were on the Memphis Grizzlies’ roster

In the trade with the Grizzlies, the Heat acquired two of the top 3 players in the NBA as far as holding LeBron to his worst FG%. Draymond is number 1, Iguodala and Crowder are 2 and 3

Also worth mentioning, Goran Dragic did not play in that last game against the Lakers

Both teams give up more open threes than you’d like them to, but during the regular season, the Heat ranked 2nd in 3pt%. The Lakers were 21st

As much as we love the underlying storyline of individual matchups, and who’s gonna cook who, or who’s gonna clamp who, what shit is pretty irrelevant

The Heat have never played in a way where a guy would stop the ball and try to score 50. Even when Wade was here, a lot of his points came in transition and the work he did off the ball

So what’s being brushed off is the fact the Heat don’t have a guy who’s gonna score 50, but they have 6 guys who can score 25 on any given night. 7 if Nunn gets back into form

Coaching is also a factor. Spoelstra coached against Vogel in the playoffs 3 times, and won 3 times. He also developed a lot of what LeBron is today while coaching him for 4 years