The dream matchup the NBA and the ABC network wanted has come to fruition as the Miami Heat survived the stubborn Boston Celtics in seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals to advance to the NBA Finals.
It's the second straight trip for the Heat, where they will now face the Oklahoma City Thunder, who will have the home court advantage in this series.
In the Western Conference Finals, the Thunder roared back from a 2-0 deficit to win four straight games and knock off the San Antonio Spurs, a team that won an NBA record 20 consecutive games bridging from the regular season into the playoffs, where they had a 10-game win streak until losing the final four games to the Thunder.
OKC is led by Kevin Durant, the three-time NBA scoring champion and is flanked by Russell Westbrook and James Harden, the NBA Sixth Man of the Year.
Miami has the "Big Three" of LeBron James, the NBA Most Valuable Player for the past season, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.
Miami lost in six games to the Dallas Mavericks in last year's NBA Finals while this is the first ever trip for the Thunder. Although when the OKC franchise was still located in Seattle (as the SuperSonics) the team made three trips to the Finals, including a championship back in 1979 against the Washington Bullets.
Both teams can run and gun (that is OKC's strength) and can also run the half court offense.
Defensively, the Heat rates a slight edge but the Thunder showed they can played "air tight" defense when they have to as they overcame deficits to San Antonio in three consecutive games to close out the series, including a comeback from an 18-point first half deficit in the decisive game six.
The LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant matchup is what everyone NBA fan has been waiting to see ever since the Thunder fell short of the Finals last season, when they lost to Dallas in the Western Conference Finals.
This series looks to be a great one and should go at least six, possibly seven games with the Thunder emerging as the champions.
No comments:
Post a Comment