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While this year’s NBA final is missing the household names and traditional powerhouses like the Los Angeles Lakers or Boston Celtics, there’s plenty of reason to tune in for the best-of-seven series.
This year’s edition features the Denver Nuggets — a team that plays in a city where football reigns supreme — and the Miami Heat, which nearly didn’t make it out of the NBA’s play-in tournament.
But a number of reasons will have me watching, as this series will focus more on the game of basketball than the stars of the league.
It’s always great to watch Canadians succeed on sport’s biggest stages and there’s a great one to cheer on in Denver’s Jamal Murray. The Kitchener-born point guard has been able to stay healthy and is emerging as a consistent scorer for the Nuggets this post-season, scoring 37 in back-to-back games during a sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference final.
Nikola Jokic could also cement himself as the best player in the world with another great playoff performance. The centre from Sombor, Serbia is already the all-time leader for triple-doubles for the position and should have won his third straight MVP award this season. That would’ve made him the fourth player to ever accomplish that (after Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, and Bill Russell).
But the NBA media seemed hesitant to vote for the second-round draft pick because of his lack of playoff success.
But an NBA title here would cement him as the best player currently and drive him up the “best players ever” list — which is not bad for a guy drafted during a Taco Bell commercial.
Then there’s the Heat, which is on a run no one saw coming.
After losing to the Atlanta Hawks in the first game of the play-in tournament and then winning a battle against the Chicago Bulls, the Heat has knocked off the No. 1-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, a rising New York Knicks squad and then the second-seeded Boston Celtics. Miami needed seven games to oust the Celtics after going up 3-0 in that series.
Jimmy Butler has found a new gear in the playoffs and does it all for the Heat, averaging 28.5 points, 5.7 assists and 2.1 steals.
He’s on a run that ranks up there among the best ever by an individual in the playoffs.
And his supporting cast deserves all the credit for stepping up. The Heat has seven undrafted players in its lineup — Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Caleb Martin, Duncan Robinson, Udonis Haslem, Haywood Highsmith, and Omer Yurtseven — and they have elevated their games to provide Butler with help.
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra also deserves a bunch of credit. In my opinion, he is the best coach in the NBA right now and a title here will end any debate otherwise.
So I’m excited to see if the steady Nuggets can continue their dominance this post-season or if the Heat can stay hot during its unprecedented run.
But if I had to make a guess … Nuggets in six.
