The NBA Finals: Why the Lakers will win the championship

LeBron James believed he could win every time he advanced to the NBA Finals. A couple occasions, the four lines, not he realistically had little won on paper,”James said. chance. His first and last “At the end of the day, appearances in Cleveland when I’ve lost in the finals, ended in sweeps, the better team won because overmatched Cavaliers they played well, teams routed by San they were more prepared Antonio in 2007 and and they did what they Golden State in 2018. needed to do to win those

In his 10th NBA Finals, four games.” he sees his first opportunity This time, that’s going with the Los to be his team. Angeles Lakers the same With Anthony Davis way he viewed his trips alongside James, the in Cleveland and Miami. Lakers are armed with

“The game is won between the same type of firepower they had when Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant led them to the first of three straight titles 20 years ago.

The two first-team selections to the All-NBA team have combined for 60 or more points 20 times in their first season together, and the Lakers have won 19.

They are now set up to win the Lakers’first title in a decade.

“Now we want to make sure that we finish this thing off right,”

Davis said.

James shows almost no drop-off at 35, tying his career high with four triple-doubles in these playoffs.

He is averaging 26.7 points, 10.3 rebounds and 8.9 assists, numbers no player has ever reached through his first 15 games of a post season.

Davis has been just as dominant, right about at his career postseason average of 29.6 points that trails only Michael

Jordan (33.4) and Allen Iverson (29.7) among players who have appeared in at least 25 games.

The Heat, with Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler anchoring a strong defense, might be able to take one of them away. Nobody is stopping both.

The Lakers’role players give them plenty of support, from playofftested veterans Rajon Rondo, Dwight Howard and Danny Green, to newcomers such as Kyle Kuzma and Alex Caruso. Los Angeles is shooting 49.8% as a team, tops in the postseason.

The Lakers are also limiting teams to 106.5 points, third-lowest in the playoffs, and the Heat might be the least explosive squad they will have faced. Portland had Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, Houston followed with NBA scoring leader James Harden and Russell Westbrook, and Denver boasted Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, the top two players in total points in the playoffs.

Los Angeles knocked all three teams out in five games.

Once they did, thoughts turned to the proper way to cap off what’s been a challenging season for the Lakers. A preseason trip to China turned turbulent following Houston general manager Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting democratic protesters in Hong Kong. Bryant, a franchise icon, was killed in a helicopter crash in January. The coronavirus pandemic halted the season and forced players to be away from their families for months when it resumed.

Four more wins and the Lakers can go home to them.

“Every day since we been in the bubble it’s been like, man, this is a great opportunity.

Take full advantage of it and stay in the moment,” Howard said. “You know, even after we won the Western Conference finals, I wanted to be like, all right, this is not the goal just to win the Western Conference finals. The goal is the win the championship.” They will.

Lakers in five.