By Kevin Perez and Thaddeus Ambrose

The eventful 2020 NBA Season is drawing to a close as the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers face off in the NBA Finals starting on Wednesday. When the pandemic began early this year, the remainder of the NBA season was left in question, but Disney and the NBA worked together to create a bubble which has successfully allowed the NBA season to continue. 

The Lakers and Heat both had amazing playoff runs to get them to the Finals, with each totalling a record of 12-3 in the first three rounds. The Los Angeles Lakers finished the Nuggets on Saturday with a 117-107 win. A day later, the Miami Heat closed their series out with a 125-113 victory over the Boston Celtics. 

This Final’s matchup will mark the first time in NBA History in which two teams, who missed the playoffs the previous season, will meet in the NBA Finals. 

The history between these two teams date back to when Pat Riley played and coached for the Lakers and as well the Heat’s “Big Three”. In his two runs with the Lakers, Riley won 5 championships — one as a player and four as the Head Coach. In 1995, Riley joined the Heat and coached them in their first ever championship a decade later. In 2010, Pat Riley (now the Heat’s President of Basketball Operations) got LeBron to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, which led to 4 straight finals appearances and 2 NBA Finals wins. And in the summer of 2014, Lebron James left Miami to return to Cleveland, which left Pat Riley “angered.”

After LeBron left, Chris Bosh had blood clots and the Heat descended into mediocrity until mastermind Pat Riley acquired Jimmy Butler’s last free agency, and built another championship contender. 

The Heat surpassed expectations this year by making it to the Finals. Most expected them to be an early exit, but the mindset of the team and organization said different. With a young core led by Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro, borderline All Star veteran point guard Goran Dragic, and as well the addition of Jimmy Butler, the Heat are once again back in the Finals for the first time since 2014. 

On the other side the Los Angeles Lakers led by two of the best players in the NBA, LeBron James and Anthony Davis did not disappoint as they secured the 1st seed in the West and are now in the Finals once again. After trading for Anthony Davis this last off-season, they also went out and brought Danny Green to LA — and with these moves, the Lakers are once again back in the Finals. 

Both of these teams matchup pretty interesting. In their two games this season, the Lakers took both winning by 15 and 3 respectively, but each team has their own advantages when going against each other. If any team is best equipped to defend LeBron it’s the Miami Heat, nobody knows LeBron better than his former team associates. LeBron will have his fair share of matchups as the Heat will most likely rotate Butler, Bam, Iguodala, Crowder and possibly Derrick Jones Jr on him. The Lakers have a size advantage with Anthony Davis, Howard, and McGee, which provides a rebounding advantage for them, making it interesting to see if the Heat give more minutes to their bigger guys like Kelly Olynyk and Meyers Leonard. 

The Heat are arguably the league’s best three point shooting team, while the Lakers are one of the worst jump shooting teams in the league. This could prompt Miami to run its dangerous zone defensive scheme. The Lakers have been one of the best teams at cutting, which can be a leading point to stopping Miami’s zone defense. 

LeBron and the Lakers are also the league’s oldest team, while Butler and the Heat are the youngest. Although an even playing field in the bubble playoff experience has yet to be an issue, we will see if that continues in the Finals. 

With all that said, the Lakers deserve to be the favorite but the underdog Heat have proven they can’t be counted out. Expect a tough, close, gritty and exciting matchup that could very well stretch to 7 games, but at the end only one team can come out victorious, Lakers in 7. 

Pat Riley vs the Lakers and LeBron vs his former team — Heat Lakers, it’s all going down starting Wednesday at 9:00PM eastern on ABC.

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