The Miami Heat gutted out a thrilling Game 5 win on Friday night, forcing the Los Angeles Lakers to have to wait for a potential coronation. The team rode a monster night from Jimmy Butler and some hot shooting from Duncan Robinson to see through the win, and as a result, we’ll have a crucial Game 6 on Sunday.
The game marked a small quirk: It was the first time all season that the Lakers lost in their Mamba jerseys. The team entered the game 4-0 in those threads, and while they were slated to wear them in Games 2 and 7, the team opted to toss them on for Friday night in the lead-up to the game.
The Heat were made aware of that record, and according to Jae Crowder, the decision to toss them on by the Lakers served as inspiration heading into the contest.
“You’re hearing how they’re putting the black jerseys on and sh*t and how they haven’t lost a game in those and people start talking about that,” Crowder said, per Bleacher Report. “That is motivation, and it’s always going to get under your skin a little bit. You obviously funnel that in the right direction and use it as motivation and it definitely helped tonight.”
Miami is very much a team that will take any little slight as a way to fire themselves up for a game, so this shouldn’t come as a huge shock. Still, Crowder and co. will very much hope that they get to see these uniforms one more time, because there is nothing they’d love more right now than to force a Game 7.
