Written by Davy Ondrejka
The race is over in the Eastern and Western conference finals, with the Lakers winning in five games over the Nuggets on Saturday and the Heat taking the series against the Celtics in Game 6 Sunday night. No surprise to most, the Lakers made it to the finals with relative ease.
With the exception of the few who favored the Clippers to make it to the Finals, most believed that nothing was going to be able to stop LeBron from making it to this year’s Finals.
Though the Lakers had some issues this year with their bench giving enough support at times, overall, they looked good. The combination of LeBron’s decision-making and scoring abilities paired with the great talent that is Anthony Davis has proven too much for most teams to handle.
In the West, through three series, the Lakers have only lost a combined three games. But they are not the only ones who have made it look easy. In the East, the Heat only lost three games as well. Going into the playoffs as a fifth seed, the Heat obviously exceeded expectations.
The diversity that the Heat are able to play with has been crucial to their success. They have had arguably the best chemistry in the bubble. Each night they play, no one can predict who the top scorer will be. Spreading the ball around evenly can be a nightmare for opposing teams to come up with defensive schemes to stop them.
It’s anyone’s Finals to take. We know LeBron will be at his best come Game One. But the opportunistic style of play that the Heat uses might give the Lakers more of a challenge than they have had all year.