Ahead of Game 1 in the NBA finals, 17 of 25 ESPN basketball reporters — described as “experts” by the website — predicted the Lakers would emerge victorious.

Of course, that was before observers realized that the Heat is just plain better than the Lakers.

That was hammered home the other night when the Heat held off the Lakers despite a 40-point game by LeBron James.

The Lakers’ lead in the series is now 3-2. Later tonight it will be tied, with a fraught Game 7 on Tuesday that Miami should win given that it has better players, overall.

I blame LeBron for NBA fans being surprised at any of this.

We started our analysis of this series with this assumption: Any team with LeBron James and (in particular) Anthony Davis will win the NBA title.

For a week, that seemed correct.

Over the past week, holes have been shot through the “Lakers are ascendant” line of thinking.

The reality here is that the Lakers who are not LeBron or Davis … are inferior to their Heat counterparts.

The Heat is younger and faster, shoots better from the perimeter and has better coaching than its Lakers counterparts.

If we concede that Jimmy Butler of the Heat has demonstrated that he and LeBron basically cancel out each other — at least in this series — and Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo do the same thing in their matchup, well, the Lakers are in deep trouble.

The Lakers’ who are likely to play tonight:

Guards: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Danny Green, Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso.

Center: Dwight Howard.

Forwards: James, Davis, Markieff Morris, Kyle Kuzma.

Miami Heat

Forwards: Butler, Adebayo, Jae Crowder.

Guards: Duncan Robinson, Tyler Herro, Andre Iguodala, Kendrick Nunn.

You can look up the numbers for each of those guys, and see what you think, but I am satisfied the Heat is better, thanks to Jimmy Butler’s heroics and the return of Robinson as a deadly shooter (seven-for-13 on threes in Game 5).

I would love to see the Lakers win, but I don’t see it happening. Not after watching the first five games of this series, and saw Lakers fans go from smug to triumphant to “on the verge” to a cold sweat that their guys are not going to get out of this fix with a 17th Los Angeles championship.