Heat 8-7 Lakers, 8:35, 1st quarter Tyler Herro with a nice-looking floater puts Miami ahead briefly, but Danny Green hits a jumper in response. And there’s Jimmy Butler with a pull-up jumper. Nice back-and-forth early on here. Heat 4-5 Lakers, 9:58, 1st quarter Danny Green tries to block Jimmy Butler, but he’s called for a foul. Butler goes to the line, where he’s spent a lot of his time this series, and hits two free throws. On the other end, LeBron James scores for the first time and, we’re guessing, not the last time this game. In these extraordinary times, the Guardian’s editorial independence has never been more important. Because no one sets our agenda, or edits our editor, we can keep delivering quality, trustworthy, fact-checked journalism each and every day. Free from commercial or political bias, we can report fearlessly on world events and challenge those in power. Your support protects the Guardian’s independence. We believe every one of us deserves equal access to accurate news and calm explanation. No matter how unpredictable the future feels, we will remain with you, delivering high quality news so we can all make critical decisions about our lives, health and security – based on fact, not fiction. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. Heat 2-3 Lakers, 10:34, 1st quarter Bam Adebayo gets the scoring going with a dunk but Danny Green responds with a three-pointer. Opening Tip Heat 0-0 Lakers, 11:40, 1st quarter And we’re off! The Lakers get the ball first, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope fires and misses. I just realized that Dwight Howard is very likely to be the starting center on a world champion Lakers team. This is not something any of us could have predicted a few years ago. Email from Curtis Brown: I am looking for a celebrity mention I chose the Lakers to win game 5. I have to think you’re in the majority here. If the Heat win this game it will be an all-time “Nobody Believed In Us” game. A vote for AD. The NBA Countdown crew mostly were going with LeBron. Well, there’s a chance we’ll get the answer in a few hours here. For the record, if the Heat win tonight. Game 6 is 7:30 pm EST on Sunday. That’s one more motivating factor for the Lakers: they would much rather get their win now then have to compete with Sunday Night Football. Lakers point guard Rajon Rondo, when asked if his future is in coaching, immediately says that he might be more interested in being a general manager which is... completely in line with his personality. Let’s just say that his decisions wouldn’t be impacted by sentimental concerns. And we are 13 minutes into this pregame and we have the first indication that the Miami Heat are also participating in the NBA Finals with a split-second acknowledgment that Jimmy Butler exists. Okay, I’m just going to flat out say this: Mickey Mouse, not being a living entity, shouldn’t count as a celebrity. NBA Countdown has begun and we’re already dipping into the LeBron James/Michael Jordan argument. Let’s face it: it’s the main narrative at play in this particular NBA Finals. With a fourth championship, LeBron James will continue to add to his ridiculous list of accomplishments as he continues his quest to rival or perhaps surpass Michael Jordan as the greatest basketball player in history. Jordan, of course, has six championships to go along with six Finals MVP awards, and there will be many who won’t even compare the two until James at least ties him with the number of rings. Here’s the thing: James, despite being 35, is still one of the best players in the league and it’s possible that with Anthony Davis, he’s found his ideal partner. Yes, James will start to decline, not even he will be able to defeat Father Time, but Davis very well could be on the cusp of being the best player in the entire league. It’s not impossible that this season is merely the start of the next stage of his career. The NBA is back on television in China for the first time in what feels like decades. You’re forgiven if you find it hard to remember after all that’s happened afterward, but the NBA and China had a huge riff after Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey sent out a tweet in support of anti-government protestors in Hong Kong. Well, they’ve apparently decided to settle their differences just in time for what could very well be the final game of the 2019-20 season. Well, better late than never? I thought Davis was the MVP frontrunner until his awful performance in Game 3. Honestly, I think this is one of those cases where whoever has the most impressive performance in the closeout game will win it. One of the reasons that Miami won Game 3 was that they took advantage of a surprisingly sloppy Lakers team that came in as if they were mentally expecting to sweep the Heat. The sheer number of Lakers turnovers in that game are second only to Butler’s Game 3 performance in the list of reasons that there is still basketball going on right now. Don’t expect them to mentally take this game for granted. They are coming into this game with the mindset that they are going to shut things down. Their decision to wear the Black Mamba tribute jerseys in honor of late Lakers great Kobe Bryant should be evidence enough of that. Predictions This is the point where I once again reiterate the fact that I feel like this series is over. I’ll gladly take the L here, but it feels like Miami’s last chance at altering this series was in Game 4. I feel like the Lakers take a lead relatively early and by the third quarter it’s going to be so out-of-hand that we’re already going to be spending our time talking about where this win would fit in Lakers history and starting in with the LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan argument. Agree? Disagree? Think that Jimmy Butler has another Big Game left in him, despite the fact that the Lakers’ decision to let Anthony Davis guard him in Game 4 might have been the turning point of the entire series? Once again, send us your predictions, either via email (to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com) or Twitter (to @HunterFelt). Could Dragic’s foot injury in Game 1 of the Finals go down as the turning point of this series? ESPN’s Zach Lowe made a case that his absence essentially put the Heat in an impossible situation: The Heat gave up a lot to rescue him. The payoff waxed and waned -- until this postseason, when Dragic played some of the best basketball of his life. You felt his absence down the stretch of Game 4. With the Butler-Adebayo fulcrum stymied, Miami searched for offense -- mostly leaning on Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro rocketing off picks. The Lakers were ready. Injury Report There was a little chatter about point guard Goran Dragic attempting to find a way to play in Game 4, despite his torn plantar fascia. That didn’t happen. Perhaps if Miami had tied up the series on Tuesday we probably would have heard more, but with Miami’s chances growing slimmer it seemed highly unlikely that anything would change as far as Dragic’s Game 5 availability. Indeed, he’s listed as out alongside PG Gabe Vincent. Meanwhile, everybody’s available for the Lakers. Preamble Welcome to what very well could be the end of the longest and most surreal NBA season ever. While those of us without a rooting interest in these Finals are probably hoping that the Miami Heat can find a way to extend the season with a win against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5, we should admit that it’s something of a minor miracle that we’ve reached the point at all. Despite overwhelming odds against them, the league figured out a way to restart the season, after an extended break, without exposing their employees to a Covid-19 outbreak. The Bubble, despite the legitimate fears many of us had before the season resumed at Walt Disney World, has not burst. Let’s also not be too hasty in proclaiming today to be the end of the line. The last time we started writing premature obituaries to the season, when the Heat were down 2-0 and missing two of their most important players thanks to injuries, Jimmy Butler responded with a Finals game for the ages, a 40 point triple-double that kept Miami’s hopes alive. Unfortunately, the return of Bam Adebayo in Game 4 ended up not being enough for the Heat to beat the Lakers for a second-straight game. So, the Lakers now lead the series 3-1 and just need one more win to secure their franchise’s 17th championship and if they don’t win today, they will get two more chances. The odds aren’t great for the Heat, in other words. No matter what happens over the course of the next few hours, however, the Heat should be given plenty of credit. They started the postseason as the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and they proceeded to sweep the Indiana Pacers in the first round. Then they easily handled the Milwaukee Bucks, the team with the best regular-season record in the league, in the second and went onto beat a talented Boston Celtics squad in the Eastern Conference Finals. They have been defying odds all postseason long. It shouldn’t surprise anybody if they delay the Lakers’ coronation for at least one more game. Still, there’s a very good chance that this will be our last NBA liveblog of the year (Commissioner Adam Silver has suggested that it’s quite likely that we won’t see another season until next year). That means that if you’ve meaning to contribute, this might be your last chance. You can send emails to hunter.felt.freelance@theguardian.com or direct your Tweets to @HunterFelt. It’s Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat here in the Bubble of Walt Disney World. The game’s scheduled to start at 9 pm EST, but we’ll have continual updates before then. Hunter will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Etan Thomas’s column from today looking back on his experiences facing LeBron James during his playing days.