The Miami Heat shocked everyone by extending the NBA Finals to a game 6 on Sunday night.
After Miami extended the NBA Finals with a 111-108 win in Game 5, forward Jae Crowder said the team was motivated by the Los Angeles Lakers wearing their “Black Mamba” jerseys. The Lakers had yet to lose a game this postseason in them.
“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,” said Crowder, per Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports. “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.”
The Heat have dogs on their team and looked at those jerseys as a target to show up the Lakers. The Lakers were 4-0 in the postseason in Black Mamba jerseys before dropping game 5. The jerseys are the team’s way of honoring the memory of the late Kobe Bryant.
The Lakers didn’t think that those jerseys wouldn’t ever motivate their opponents.