The NBA Finals is set
The Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets will square off for the 2023 NBA championships. Denver not only swept the LA Lakers but also vacuumed the gas out of senior citizen LeBron. The continued reliance on a 38-year old obviously backfired. Nuggets had won their first ever Western Conference crown and formally booked their first ever trip to the NBA Finals.
The Boston Celtics and the LA Lakers, two of the league’s winningest teams with 17 titles each, had been unceremoniously buried by the Heat and the Nuggets in their respective conference finals. Never in the history of the NBA that a team down 0-3 had ever recovererd and won a seven game series. Well, ‘buried’ is an understatement. With the way Miami and Denver had been playing, they simply cremated the opposition.
Reversing the situation, the Celtics and Lakers could have been battling for their 18th league title and bragging rights.
On target for their 7th Eastern Conference title, today could be their coronation for the conference crown. There is a strong chance Miami could be the first 8th seeded team to win an NBA title, the 4th for the franchise. A championship ring would be a fitting send-off gift to a retiring Udonis Haslem, who has 3 title rings in his collection.
Jason Tatum, efficient for the first three quarters, was effectively shut down in the fourth. The Celtics literally surrendered in Game 3.
I wondered how the constantly flopping Joel Embiid
won the league MVP award over the ever consistent Nikola Jokic. He was a dud inn the deciding seventh game against the Celtics with just 15 points and 8 rebounds.
Since the start of the playoffs, Jokic had been the backbone of the Nuggets. He was averaging a triple-double (27.7pts, 14.5rebs, 11.7ast) during the series with the Lakers. Jamal Murray did most of the scoring damage with a 32ppg average for the series.
Miami has a legit star in Jimmy Butler but he’s surrounded by a hardworking crew led by Bam Adebayo. Four of the seven undrafted players on their roster had been very productive like Caleb Martin, Max Strus, Duncan Robinson and Gabe Vincent. Kevin Love and Kyle Lowry will provide that championship experience.
I won’t be predicting how many games the DenverMiami series will go as all my previous panag-an were way off the mark. Let’s just enjoy the brilliance of Jokic, the effectiveness of Butler and the coaching wizardry of coach Spo.
In the meantime, it’s looking more like Joe Mazzulla and Darvin Ham ‘left the group’ in the near future.*