After it was announced that Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic would miss Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Friday night, many fans on Twitter were willing to call the game a wash and pronounce the Lakers winners.
Adebayo has been a defensive savant in the paint and provided plenty of offense. He is the team's third-leading scorer in the playoffs, averaging 17.8 points, to go with 10.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists in 35.9 minutes per game.
Dragic has been the Heat's second-leading scorer this postseason behind Jimmy Butler, averaging 19.9 points along with 4.6 assists in 33.4 minutes per game.
Still, the show must go on. There will be a Game 2, which means Miami coach Erik Spoelstra needs to figure out how to replace his do-it-all big man and his veteran point guard. Here are a few ways he could approach that challenge:
Players who could replace Goran Dragic
SG Tyler Herro (16 postseason games; 16.3 points, 3.9 assists in 33.1 minutes per game)
Herro is the obvious option to plug into the starting lineup. He hasn't started a game the entire postseason but he has played starter's minutes off the bench. He has been very effective on the offensive end, although he will have to find some of the magic he had in his 37-point performance in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals if the Heat are to challenge the Lakers more than they did in Game 1.
Most points in a Playoff game
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) September 24, 2020
Age 20 or younger
42: Magic Johnson
37: TYLER HERRO *
36: Derrick Rose
34: Brandon Jennings
29: Tony Parker
* Off the bench
pic.twitter.com/fHXoil149o
Even if Herro is able to replicate that kind of performance, Miami will still need other players off the bench to step up.
NBA FINALS: If there's a way to recover from a blowout Game 1 loss, then the Heat can find it
G Kendrick Nunn (10 games; 4.7 points, 1.1 assists in 12.4 minutes per game)
The undrafted wing had an excellent regular season, averaging 15.3 points and 3.3 assists in 29.3 minutes per game to earn First Team All-Rookie honors. His performance in the playoffs has been abysmal, to the point he fell out of the regular rotation. He is shooting 38.5 percent from the field and 20.8 percent from 3-point range in the postseason.
He may have played himself back into the rotation in Game 1 of the Finals, however, after scoring 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting (2 of 4 from 3) in 20 minutes. If he can give the Heat a similar lift off the bench in Game 2, then they might still stand a fighting chance.
F Andre Iguodala (16 games; 4.2 points, 1.6 assists in 19.8 minutes per game)
Don't count on seeing Iguodala run the point at any point, but with Herro getting a bump in minutes as the primary ballhandler, you can expect to see more of the 2015 Finals MVP on the wing. The Heat acquired the 36-year-old vet because of his experience in these kinds of games, so anticipate him becoming even more involved as the series goes on.
Players who could replace Bam Adebayo
F/C Kelly Olynyk (13 games; 5.8 points, 4.2 rebounds in 12.5 minutes per game)
Things didn't go all that well for Olynyk in Game 1: He had four points on 1-of-5 shooting in 18 minutes. He did pull down five rebounds and dish out four assists, however. He isn't going to provide nearly the same level of defense as Adebayo, but if he can rediscover his shooting stroke — he made 40.6 percent of 3-point attempts in the regular season compared to just 29.4 percent thus far in the postseason — then he could give the Heat the spacing needed to make shooters like Herro and Duncan Robinson more effective.
F/C Meyers Leonard (One game; Zero points, zero rebounds, two assists in nine minutes)
This feels like a massive long shot.
Leonard hasn't played since Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals vs. the Bucks, and he didn't contribute much then. But he was an effective role player in the regular season, averaging 6.1 points and 5.1 rebounds in 20.3 minutes per game. Spoelstra has shortened his bench in the postseason, which has left Meyers without a role, but he'll likely see some action in Game 2. Similarly to Olynyk, he shot 41.9 percent from 3-point range this season, so it's possible he could find a rhythm and earn more playing time the rest of the series.
F Jae Crowder (16 games; 12.3 points, 5.5 rebounds in 31.0 minutes per game)
Don't be surprised if Spoelstra takes a page out of Mike D'Antoni's playbook and goes with a no-big lineup, with Crowder as the biggest player on the floor at 6-6 and 235 pounds. Crowder has been playing most of his minutes as a small-ball four. Spoelstra will likely look to avoid such lineups when LA's Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard are in the game, but it will allow him to put his best five offensive players on the floor together.