Following an improbable win in Game 5 of the Finals, Jae Crowder spoke to Yahoo’s Chris Haynes. He said the Lakers’ hoopla with the Mamba jerseys lit a fire under the Heat players.
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It was an all-time great Finals game that went Miami’s way. While they held the lead for most of the game, the Lakers kept them within range for 3 quarters courtesy LeBron’s efforts.
The Lakers surged to a 15-3 run in the 4th quarter to retake the lead, before the teams kept exchanging it. The Heat took a decisive lead through free throws from Butler with 16.8 seconds remaining.
Jae Crowder speaks about how the fuss about the Mamba jerseys motivated the Heat
The Lakers went all out in Game 5. They switched wearing the Mamba jerseys from the designated Game 6 to Game 5.
They’d played 4 games in that jersey and won all of them prior to this faceoff. With tough players like Butler, Iguodala and Crowder on the Heat roster, they would no doubt have resented all this talk.
“You’re hearing how they’re putting the black jerseys on and sh– and how they haven’t lost a game in those and people start talking about that. 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.”
Jimmy Butler had another monster outing in Game 5, with 35 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, 5 steals and a clutch block on LeBron.
It was one of those rare occasions when a player has outplayed James when he’s having a monster night of his own. Butler also held his nerve down the stretch to knock down free throws from the line in ice cold fashion.
