Weekly NBA Wrap: 1 October 2020
After one of the most challenging seasons in NBA history, only two teams remain in the championship hunt. Congratulations to the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers for making it through to the NBA finals and successfully navigating this interrupted NBA season. This is a mouth-watering series and we look forward to it hopefully going the distance! It doesn't look promising though after the Lakers destroyed the Heat in game one.
Can the Heat turn it around?
Here’s your Weekly NBA Wrap.
Lakers Make Statement
The first game of the finals turned out to be a fizzler. The Miami Heat took an early 13 point lead in the first quarter before the Lakers took things up again and completely dominated the Miami Heat. At one point, the Lakers were up by as much as 32 points. Anthony Davis finished with 34 points, while Lebron James ended the game with 25 points, 13 rebounds and 9 assists.
There were some big name virtual fans in attendance including Paul Pierce, Barack Obama and Shaq. Laker great Paul Gasol also made an appearance, wearing an old school Kobe Bryant jersey.
To add salt to the wound, several key Miami Heat players sustained injuries in the game including Goran Dragic, Bam Adebeyo and Jimmy Butler.
It is only one game but the Heat need to make some serious adjustments to avoid a sweep.
Waiters Is The Real Champion
No matter what happens in the series between the Heat and the Lakers, there is one thing certain - Dion Waiters will walk away with a championship ring. The Lakers bench warmer was part of the Heat at the start of the season, before joining LA. Based on NBA rules, he will receive a ring regardless.
Waiters even finds the situation amusing based on his response to the below tweet.
Started From The Bottom
There are only a handful of people that embody the Miami Heat organisation. Pat Riley, Dwayne Wade, Udonis Haslem and…...Eric Spoelstra. Coach Spoelstra guided Miami to four straight finals appearances when he had the big three (Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh) and has just reached his fifth finals series as coach. For those that aren't aware, Spoelstra’s journey in Miami started 25 years ago when he was the Video Coordinator of the team.
Here is a pic of Spoelstra reviewing video on a state of the art computer (at the time).
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What's Up, Doc
The Clippers were the overwhelming favourite to win the NBA Championship this year. When they lost to the Denver Nuggets and failed to even reach the Western Conference Finals they became the laughing stock of the NBA. In the aftermath, it appeared that Doc Rivers would keep his head coaching job.
Well, things changed pretty quickly. Rivers posted a message on social media thanking the Clippers for his time there.
Luckily for Rivers, there are a truckload of teams looking for a head coach at the moment and he will be in hot demand. Reportedly, the 76ers and Pelicans have already reached out to him. Where will Rivers coach next year?
Can steal the 76ers job from Mike D’Antoni who has been rumoured to be the favourite for the position?
Lebron > 27 Franchises
Sometimes we are so focused on the present that we don’t have time to step back and admire greatness. Lebron James may not be the GOAT (I would take MJ every day) but boy can the man play basketball. He has been in the league 17 years and is making his 10th finals appearance. To put this into perspective, he has made more NBA finals appearances than 27 franchises.
Lebron has only won three championships so he understands that the job is not done yet. This was pretty obvious in the way he celebrated winning the Western Conference.