The Heat And Nuggets Road To The Finals

At the beginning of the season, most people wouldn’t have expected these two teams, the Nuggets, and Heat, to meet in the finals. This is especially the case for the Heat. In almost every playoff series they won to make it to the finals, the odds were against them. According to the Washington Post, “Based on the opening prices of each playoff round set by oddsmakers, the Heat was given less than a 1 percent chance to reach the NBA finals.” Jimmy Butler is a big part of why they have made it so far. He has had many outstanding performances throughout the Heats playoff run. He is averaging 27.6 points 7 rebounds and 5.8 assists in the 18 playoff games he’s played in so far. In game 4 of the first round against the Bucks, he put up a career-high 56 points. Thanks to his spectacular scoring the Heat were able to pull an upset against the #1 team in the east as an 8 seed.

In the second round, they faced the New York Knicks. Yet again Jimmy Butler put up consistent scoring numbers in each game. They were able to win the series in 6 games. After taking down the Knicks the Heat faced their toughest opponent yet the Boston Celtics who previously beat the Hawks and 76ers. The Heat were able to win the first three games of the series but the Celtics responded by winning in game four to avoid elimination. Tatum led the way in this game with 33. The Celtics went on to win games five and six as well. In game six Derrick White was able to keep the Celtics playoffs dreams alive by getting a clutch tip in to win the game. However, in game seven, the Heat was able to pull through and win by 19 to advance to the FInals. Butler had 28 in this game.

Like Jimmy Butler, Nikola Jokic is a big part of why his team has been playing so well. Not only has he put up good scoring numbers he also has the ability to find his teammates which is a big part of why they have been able to so far in the playoffs. He is currently averaging a 30 point triple double with 12.9 rebounds and 10.1 assists in the 17 playoff games he has played so far. In the first round they took on the Twolves who they beat 4-1, after that they went against the Suns. They took the Suns down in 6 games. Unlike the Heat, the Nugget’s conference finals were a lot easier because they were able to sweep the Lakers. Unlike the Heat, This is Denvers first NBA finals appearance in franchise history.

It is going to be interesting to see these two teams compete against eachother in the Finals. Both teams are very skilled on both sides of the court and they both have two offensive weapons in Nikola Jokic and Jimmy Butler.