After being postponed the NBA 2020 season resumes and the playoffs begin mid-August.
By: Eduardo Villalobos, Jaime Amarillas, and Julia Zenteno.
This year’s NBA season has been a bit of a rollercoaster as the season was postponed because of COVID for a few months and commenced on July 30.
The Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat won their respective conference finals and must face off in the NBA Finals.
September 15 was a day to forget for Clippers fans as The LA CLippers blew a 3-1 lead and the Denver Nuggets advanced to the Western Conference Finals against LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers with a chance to reach their first ever NBA Finals.
“I felt upset that they lost because this was supposed to be the year that they finally won but they fell short… again” said APB student Miguel Diaz who felt very optimistic about next season, “I’m just hoping they fix their defensive problems and create a strong bond between one another so that they understand themselves.”
After game 4 of the Clippers vs Nuggets series, The Clippers were leading with 3 games won out of the 4. It was looking very hard and seemed like mission impossible for the Nuggets to win the next 3 games against superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George but the Nuggets never lost hope and were hoping to take the victory the following game on September 11.
In game 5 Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray combined with 48 points, 22 rebounds, and 12 assists to bring the Nuggets the win with the score ending 111-105. The duo had nothing to lose and could not give up in the biggest games of their career.
Two days later, the Nuggets tied the series after stealing game 6 with a 13 point win with one game to go to break the deadlock.
Entering quarter 3 of game 7 it was pretty even with the Clippers having 56 points and the Nuggets trailing with 54 points. Can the Clippers come back and win what has been a phenomenal series? The answer is no.
Murray and Jokic had a fantastic game with Murray ending the game with 40 points and Jokic getting a triple-double to take the Nuggets to the Conference Finals for the fourth time and potentially to their first ever NBA Finals.
The Denver Nuggets force game 6 as the Nuggets from a 3-0 deficit
Prior to facing the LA Clippers in the semi finals, the Nuggets went up against the Utah Jazz where by game 4 they were also trailing 3-1 and the rest is history.
On the opposite side of the bracket, the Miami Heat breezed through the Milwaukee Bucks after beating them in game 5 and cementing their spot in the conference finals against either the Boston Celtics or the Toronto Raptors.
2 days later, the Celtics played the Raptors in game 7 to decide who will go up against the Miami Heat in the conference finals. It was a fairly close game but the Celtics won with a 5 point lead and would now have to face the Heat.
Miami Heat won the first two games of the conference finals but lost their third game. The same story applied to the Lakers who won their first two games but lost to the Nuggets in game 3.
Ultimately, both sides came out on top and faced each other in the NBA FInals which began on September 30th and could go onto October 13.
The first game was on September 3rd at the AdventHealth Arena where the Lakers absolutely dominated the game and finished with an 18 point game lead with LeBron James and Anthony Davis combining a total of 59 points, 14 assists and 21 rebounds.
The Lakers also took the win in game 2 after the game ended 124-114. The Lakers are now half way done to a coronation that will make them the team with the most championship titles along with the Boston Celtics who currently have 17, one more than the Lakers.
Game 3 was a different story, however. Jimmy Butler ended the game with a triple-double bringing the Heat their first win of the finals.
LeBron James had a controversial game where he left the court before the buzzer ended and people criticized him for it because of the lack of leadership that it shows and how low his motivation to not give up was.
Like always though, he shut the critics up and ended game 4 as top scorer and a double-double to bring the Lakers one step closer to the Championship title that they have been craving for the past decade after going 6 years without even making the playoffs and even hitting rock bottom in the 2014-15 season where they only won a staggering 17 games out of 82.
Game 5 was a different story however with Jimmy Butler getting his first triple-double of the series and the game ending 111-108 in favor of the Miami Heat. This result prolonged the Lakers’ championship by 1 game.
Game 6. The most important game. Will the Lakers win the Championship or will the Miami Heat force a game 7? Everyone expected Jimmy Butler to be on fire and force game 7. The exact opposite is what happened, though. Butler made only 5 of 10 field goals and ended the game with a mere 12 points in a 93-106 loss.
On the other hand, LeBron achieved his first and only triple-double of the series and proved that he shows up in big games unlike Butler who had an underwhelming performance in one of the biggest games of his career.
The Lakers added 1 more championship trophy to their trophy cabinet and created more history on top of all the history they currently have and the likes of LeBron James and Anthony Davis are just two more legends that have worn the Lakers jersey. LeBron made a huge statement to the GOAT conversation by winning his 4th NBA title and 3rd Finals MVP with a third NBA team.
LeBron holds the NBA Finals trophy as he leads the Lakers to their 17th Trophy
