The four franchises, and their respective stars, will reissue the same conference finals that were held in 2020 in Orlando, Florida, when the NBA cloistered itself in the Disney World sports complex to protect itself from the covid-19 pandemic.
The lakerswinners of that championship in the Finals against the Heatare now the most unexpected guest at this point.
The Los Angeles team started the course with a poor balance of 2-10 and narrowly missed the playoffs, after transforming their squad in February with the departure of Russell Westbrook and the arrival of valuable secondaries such as D’Angelo Russell, jarred vanderbilt either Rui Hachimura.
On the back of the inexhaustible Lebron Jameswho continues to impose his law at the age of 38, and of a Anthony Davis Back in top form, the Lakers defeated the Timberwolves in the playoffs and restored their pride by returning to the playoffs after a year’s absence.
They convincingly eliminated the second-seeded Grizzlies in the Western Conference in the first round, and then delivered the big blow by dispatching the reigning champions, Stephen Curry’s Warriors.
“Much respect”
Crowned in February as the top all-time scorer in the nbaLeBron continues to win his race against time and is now just four wins away from playing his 11th Finals.
To earn the right to fight for his fifth ring, ‘King James’ will have to overcome the biggest obstacle so far, the Denver Nuggets of Jokicthe top seed in the conference.
Also read: Tatum shines and the Celtics settle in the Eastern final
The Serbian center, winner of two MVP awards, masterfully directs a team that has been playing by heart for years and that barely gave opportunities in the Western semifinals to the Suns of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.
The base Jamal Murray and the eave Michael Porter Jr. They are still the other figures of a much more curdled squad than the one that lost a clear 4-1 to the Lakers in the ‘bubble’ of Disney World.
The Los Angeles coach, the rookie Darvin Ham, will have to figure out the formula to stop Jokic, a center with unique intelligence and skills who was able to average a monumental triple double (34.5 points, 13.2 rebounds and 10.3 assists). ) in the series against the Suns.
“We know what they have,” James warned. “We come into this series with a lot of respect for Denver, for what they’ve accomplished and what they can do against us.”
The Nuggets were far superior in the regular season and have home court advantage in the series, but the Lakers have history on their side.
Denver, which has never reached an NBA Finals, succumbed to the Californians three of the four times it has competed in the Western finals (1985, 2009 and 2020).
Tatum vs. Butler
In addition to the Lakers, the Miami Heat They also broke most forecasts by sneaking into the top four teams of the course.
Also classified in the playoffs, the squad of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo gave the big surprise of the postseason by eliminating Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, the best team in the regular season.
Without their third leading scorer, the injured Tyler Herro, the Heat then overcame the rocky New York Knicks to reach their third East Finals in the last four years.
Starting Wednesday, Miami will try to avenge the loss it conceded in this instance last season in Game 7 against the Celtics, in which Butler missed a decisive shot in the final seconds.
However, the combative shooting guard does not slacken his desire to reach a ring and, at 33 years old, he has been living up to his nickname of “Playoff Butler” in these qualifiers with an average of 31.1 points.
On the other hand, the Celtics do not lack confidence or a megastar to face this tough tie.
On Sunday they passed over the Philadelphia 76ers of Joel Embiid and James Harden in the final duel of the tie with a recital of Jason Tatumwho broke the scoring record in a seventh game with 51 points.
At 25 years old, the talented forward continues to break records of some of the myths that preceded him in the Celtics, the most winning franchise in the NBA along with the Lakers.
Now he dreams of inaugurating his trophy case and for this he has by his side All-Star guard Jaylen Brown and one of the best defenses in the league, with warriors like Marcus Smart and the Dominican Al Horford.
