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While Los Angeles Lakers fans are elated their team won a championship, there are more than few people out there who want to put an asterisk on the recent title run. The Miami Heat had injuries to two key players during the series and it pretty much killed their chances of pulling off the upset. Heat president Pat Riley made some headlines recently when he suggested that there was an asterisk next to the title because of the injuries.
“They were the best team, but there’s always going to be asterisk, that caveat,” Riley said, via the Miami Herald. “If we had Bam and Goran – Goran was our leading scorer in the playoffs – at 100 percent, it could have gone to seven games or whatever, but thank you for reminding me. I appreciate that, but I’m not going to look back on it. I’m just going to look at all the positive things, get Goran healthy and Bam healthy, and bring everybody back and try to add to the mix.”
Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka has already stated that he doesn’t believe there should be an asterisk next to the title. Orlando Magic guard Terrence Ross agrees with Pelinka and threw some subtle shade at Riley. He commented salt emojis on an Instagram post featuring Riley’s comments which would insinuate that the Heat president is “salty” for losing.
The below screenshot is from Heat Nation.
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Riley ‘Clarifies’ Comments
Riley obviously took some heat for his comments so he decided to come out and clarify them.
“The asterisk is next to the Heat’s name, not the Lakers,” Riley said, via the Miami Herald. “Their title is legitimate. Our loss has an asterisk [next] to it. The Lakers were the better team. Period.”
While Riley is suggesting his comments were taken out of context, his clarification doesn’t seem to actually clarify anything. It appears that he’s saying that the Lakers should get credit for the win but the Heat shouldn’t get credit for the loss. That’s not really how things work. Either there’s an asterisk for both or for neither. Riley isn’t about to try and start drama with his former team but it doesn’t sound like he’s willing to acknowledge that the Lakers won fair and square.
Were Lakers the Better Team?
It would’ve been nice to see the Heat play the Lakers at full strength for the entirety of the Finals but things don’t always work out that way. However, there’s little indication to suggest the Heat were the better team when healthy. When Miami was healthy for the first two and a half quarters of Game 1, the Lakers completely dominated. They were up by 26 points when Dragic had to leave the game.
Sure, the series might have been more competitive had Bam Adebayo and Gragic played every game but the Lakers were the better team and had more talent. The Heat Adebayo and Gragic in Game 6 and were completely dominated. At the end of the day, nobody was beating that Laker team in a seven-game series.
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