Welcome in to the 2020 NBA Finals preview. And then there were two! The Lakers are close to the finish line. But, they have one more obstacle standing in their way for championship #17. The Miami Heat have punched their ticket to the NBA Finals after defeating the Boston Celtics in 6. They too, are looking to add another championship banner in their franchise history.
The Miami Heat are better than what their record and seeding shows. They were the backend pick to emerge out of the Eastern Conference. The obvious front runners were the Milwaukee Bucks. Everybody penciled the Bucks in as the favorites. But, they were eliminated early on by this very same Heat team.
The Heat are a team that plays hard on both ends of the floor. Given Coach Erik Spoelstra's pedigree on the defensive end, they defend at a high level, which is a testament to that hard-nosed culture that Pat Riley established down in South Beach. They are a team with young rising stars and a mix of battle-hardened veterans. Bam Adebayo has emerged as one of the best big men in the league. Tyler Herro is only a rookie, but he has blossomed into a superstar during this postseason run. Then, you add on one of the best two-way players in the league in Jimmy Butler and the veteran presence of Goran Dragic, Jae Crowder, and Andre Iguodala. This team has a healthy balance of young and old that could score and defend. To top it all off, they played criminally underrated, unselfish team basketball throughout this season.
As I mentioned, this team is a backend pick to represent the Eastern Conference. Still, they have put together an improbable playoff run to the NBA Finals. They dispatched the Indiana Pacers easily in the first round. But from there, their playoff resume becomes more impressive. The Milwaukee Bucks were an odds-on favorite to possibly win it all with Giannis Antetokounmpo winning DPOY and MVP. The Heat absolutely broke their spirits in a gentlemen's sweep. It took the Bucks an OT win to stave off a complete 4-0 sweep, but it wasn't enough to stop the inevitable. In the Conference Finals, they made life tough on a decent, well-coached Celtics team. Their zone defense gave Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and the rest of those guys all kinds of trouble.
The Lakers may have swept the regular season series, but to notch wins against this very same Miami Heat was no easy task. Now, there are some different parts added / lost, which makes this matchup even more intriguing. The 2-3 zone defense is the longtime staple defense of the Heat. How the Lakers exploited that was that they had LeBron, AD, McGee, and Dwight attack the paint quickly before that zone defense could get set. To beat this zone, players have to be constantly on the move. The Lakers have LeBron and AD, but ball watching them should be held to a minimum. We need to see Laker players actively cutting and getting to their spots for an easy basket. Teams struggle with 2-3 zone if they don't have consistent knockdown shooters, which the Lakers obviously fall under. It's essential that guys like Caruso, KCP, Kuzma, and Markieff Morris are in the right spots at the right time, making LeBron and Rondo's job easy as the initiators on offense and to take some of the scoring load off Anthony Davis.
Regarding Bam Adebayo, the Lakers already faced a similar big man who can score and facilitate. I'm talking about Nikola Jokic in the most recent series with the Nuggets. Obviously Bam is much more athletic than Joker is and a much better defender. Throughout this postseason, Bam is the only true Center for the Heat. They do have Meyers Leonard and Kelly Olynyk, but they've committed to "small ball," which has worked for them to this point. The Lakers as they did with Jokic need to take Bam out of the game early. And it starts with the Lakers' big man trio of Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, and Javale McGee using their size and length to disrupt him.
As I mentioned before, AD is the jack-of-all-trades that can counter any skilled big man. He has the luxury of Dwight and Javale who could spare him as they're both solid rim protectors in their own right. I think the biggest factor is how healthy AD's ankle is. It could be a deciding factor in this series. Like in the Nuggets series, AD is going to have to be big here, especially since LeBron will have Jimmy Butler and Andre Iguodala checking him. Iggy may be getting up there in age, but he's one of the few that could defend LeBron, especially in these finals, dating back to the four consecutive Cavs-Warriors finals. But we know LeBron will be up for the challenge and still put up amazing numbers. AD must follow suit and take his game to a higher level on the NBA's biggest stage.
Tyler Herro, Goran Dragic, Jae Crowder, and Duncan Robinson could blow up the Lakers' gameplans in smoke. We've raved about "Herro-ball" in the playoffs. But the savvy veteran Dragic has come on in the postseason as well. The Lakers facing him again is giving me PTSD on when they faced the Suns in 2010 Western Conference Finals. Dragic was a handful in those series and you don't want to wake up "the Dragon" like Sasha Vujacic did. He surprisingly leads this team in scoring this postseason with 21 a game. Overall, this is what is lowkey scary about this Heat team is that they have six different players scoring double digit points on a consistent basis. We mentioned Herro, Dragic, Butler, and Bam. But Jae Crowder and Duncan Robinson, they are knockdown shooters and have consistently connected on their 3-pointers throughout the postseason. For the Lakers, they've had their supporting options show up, but on a game-by-game basis. First, it would be KCP. Then Rondo. Then Caruso. Then Morris. No matter how you look at it, the supporting cast is going to need to show up consistently throughout these series for the Lakers to pull it out. Especially when canceling out six different double-digit scorers on one team.
This finals matchup does not have the prestige that a Lakers-Celtics matchup does, but there's a lot of legacy storylines to explore. This finals matchup is pretty much full circle for LeBron James. Ten years ago, "the Decision" happened. LeBron infamously announced that he was teaming up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to a form a prime Big 3 with the Miami Heat. They won two championships out of four finals appearances. Pat Riley and the Heat culture helped LeBron get over that hump and turned him into an NBA champion. The Decision. The Homecoming. This is another challenge for LeBron's legacy. He has the chance to win the championship with one of the NBA's historic franchises against a team that turned him into a champion in the first place.
Erik Spoelstra has a lot riding on this matchup as well. He is a 2x NBA champion as head coach of the Miami Heat. But, many have questioned the legitimacy of those championships given that he inherited a team with 3 All-Stars in their prime. Since the end of the Miami "Big 3" era, Coach Spo has not gotten over that hump or rekindled that championship pedigree. He has a chance to prove that his championship coaching is not a product of that Miami superteam that was formed 10 years ago. And he'll prove that against the player that was the catalyst of that team coming together.
Frank Vogel had a lot of interesting "chess matches" with Erik Spoelstra during those epic Heat-Pacers playoff series from 2012-2014. But, he always ended up on the short end of the stick. Vogel outcoaching Spo in the biggest stage would erase all those bitter losses especially now that he has LeBron this time around. This is the matchup that everybody will overlook. Both coaches implore their teams to play hard and defend at the highest level.
Those are the legacy storylines thus far and there will be more surrounding this matchup. We've overexaggerated on the matchups against Portland, Houston, and Denver. But, I feel that the Heat give the Lakers a legitimate challenge in this postseason: an emerging big man, a fearless rookie, one of the best two-way players in the league, knockdown shooters, a veteran with championship experience, and a coach with championship experience. Not to mention, AD is a bit hobbled. We'll see how that ankle holds up. But, this should be a great finals matchup. Many have wanted a Lakers-Heat finals matchup for some time, especially when the Heat Big 3 formed and Kobe, Gasol, Phil Jackson, and the late 2000s Lakers still ruled the league with back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010. It's an obscure matchup nowadays, but it still will be interesting to watch. The Lakers have a lot of finals experience with a superstar and four key veterans who've been there before. The Heat don't have that luxury. But, we gotta look back at the 2004 Detroit Pistons to prove that finals experience don't matter. This Heat team is young and they are hungry. They actually do remind me of those '04 Pistons. They defend at a high level and play unselfish basketball to give their teammates high percentage looks. As long as the Lakers stay locked in, things should be fine. I'd say this series goes six games and I'm confident that the Lakers will walk out of the NBA Bubble with the Larry O'Brien trophy in hand. Four more for Kobe! That's all that needs to be said. I'll see you guys on Wednesday.
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