Lakers, Heat likely to be in finals

BY JORGE REYNA / VN STAFF WRITER

With this not being your typical NBA playoffs due to Covid-19, there have been a lot of unexpected turns. 

Like the Clippers committing one of the biggest chokes of the season or in playoff history and the Heat kicking out the number one seed Milwaukee Bucks.

It’s now down to four teams: the Celtics, Heat, Lakers and Nuggets.

The biggest underdog has to be the Miami Heat.

Jimmy Butler, along with Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic, have led the team with impressive scoring. 

Some highlights that come to mind have been from Jimmy Butler. He alone scored 40 points in game one against the Bucks.

Another player who comes to mind is 20-year-old Tyler Herro.

In game three against Boston, Herro had 16 points in the second quarter and ended with 22 points and four assists.

If I had to choose who was going to win against Miami and Boston, I would put my chips on Miami.

Now when we take a look at the West, we see the return of King James in the playoffs rocking the purple and gold.

James has averaged 25 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in this playoff run.

We all imagined this Western Conference Finals to be the two Los Angeles teams going head to head but the Denver Nuggets performed the shock of the year and came back from a 3-1 deficit. 

Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic have been leading the charge to keep Denver in competition with the Lakers.

Murray has been averaging 26 points with six assists and Jokic has 25 points and ten rebounds.

Although there have been no in-person fans, the loyalty is still there.

Snoop Dogg responded after Murray said that the Lakers “gotta worry about them too.” The rapper said, “Lakers in 5. We not the Clippers.”

That’s the route I'm going to take and predict the Lakers will win in five games and face the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.