Malone will try to win an NBA title for the first time, and if Denver prevails he’ll become the 36th coach in league history to win a championship. The Eastern Conference finals has been a hell of a series.” “We know who we’re preparing for and we can kind of turn the page and really focus in on that. “When we wake up tomorrow morning, we know who we’re playing,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Monday, a few hours before the Celtics and Heat tipped off in Game 7. The Heat are in the finals for the seventh time and seeking their fourth championship the Nuggets are in the finals for the first time in franchise history.
HEAT ROSTER SERIES
The Nuggets had a flight to Boston tentatively scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, just in case they would be facing the Celtics - who would have had home-court advantage in the title series.īut the Heat had other ideas, won the deciding game to avoid becoming the first team in NBA history to fall after claiming a 3-0 series lead, and Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets now await. “Next year, we will have enough and we’re going to be right back in the same situation, and we’re going to get it done,” Butler vowed that night. It came one year to the day after the Celtics won a Game 7 on Miami’s floor to win the East title a year ago. The Heat got there by winning Game 7 of the East title series in Boston on Monday night. The series starts in Denver on Thursday night. 8 seed, will take on the Western Conference champion Nuggets in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Turns out, the NBA Finals are starting in the Mile High City after all.įinally, we have a title-series matchup: The Miami Heat, champions of the Eastern Conference even after getting in as only the No. Last season, according to Deadspin, the Heat had the oldest roster in the NBA.Īnd even at the top, minus LeBron, it wasn’t that productive.Two-time Kia NBA MVP Nikola Jokic leads Denver against Jimmy Butler’s upstart Miami squad.Ĭancel that flight plan, Denver. Last season, Miami had three sure-fire Hall of Famers on its roster-James, Wade and Ray Allen-and a potential fourth in Chris Bosh.īut if you look a little deeper, problems were apparent long before this year. The Heat’s struggles in 2014-15 also raise an interesting question: Absent LeBron, was this ever a particularly strong roster to begin with?Īt first blush, it’s a silly, even blasphemous thing to question.
But for the time being, Miami just doesn’t have a roster that’s capable of making noise in even the enfeebled Eastern Conference. Help is likely on the way, in the form of a free-agent splurge in the summer of 2016 or even this offseason. The Heat are just 25th in the league in points allowed per 100 possessions. A defense that was on a downward slope the last few seasons has slipped further. Melissa Majchrzak/Getty ImagesĬonsequently, the once-mighty Miami offense is now 16th in the league in efficiency, per. He's now out indefinitely with a torn meniscus.īosh hasn't necessarily disappointed, but nor has he elevated his game since ascending to the role of Miami's No. Big-ticket-well, as big-ticket as it got for Miami this summer-offseason acquisition Josh McRoberts has been at turns injured and ineffective since he came to Miami from the Charlotte Hornets. Danny Granger has made no impact whatsoever for the Heat. In short, if your best player is the 41st-best player in the NBA, you’ll be hard-pressed to win unless you have exceptional depth, which Miami doesn’t.īeyond Dwyane Wade, who’s fought through injury to have a fine season, Miami is wafer thin. Bosh’s Heat-leading 2.2 win shares are good for just 41st in the NBA, according to. Bosh has been productive-the addition of a three-point shot to his repertoire was huge-but, while he’s doubtless Miami’s best player, he’s a bit overmatched as a No. Gregory Shamus/Getty ImagesĬhris Bosh has been a solid, steadying force in Miami’s lineup, but the expectation that he would considerably raise his game in James' absence now feels foolish. After a rocky start to his return to Cleveland, LeBron and his new superfriends seem to have righted the ship.
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