I have no rooting interest in the NBA Finals; all I want to see as many games of quality basketball in this series as possible. After watching the first two games of the 2020 NBA Finals, I thought I would be denied that , as the Lakers easily overwhelmed the Heat in the first two contests. While I fully expected to continue to compete, I did not have the expectation, as I did with Denver, that they were always on the verge of a comeback. It seemed that the Heat were just fighting above their weight class and as the Heat were down two starters, the rest of the series was merely the prep time for the Lakers’ coronation.
I had resigned myself to this inevitability and began to mentally clock out from these Finals like LeBron did in game 4 in 2018.
Then Game 3 happened.
Jimmy Butler was the best player on the court Sunday night, as he dropped a 40-point triple double in a truly remarkable performance, as Miami at least staved off a sweep and took Game 3 115-104.
The prevalent talk is that “it is now a series again” , but have we quite reached that point yet? The pushing of this premature narrative gives the sports talking heads something to drone on about on their daily shows and keeps a NBA Finals that no one is watching at the forefront of the sports news cycle.
I understand that 2-1 sounds a lot more competitive than 3-0, however the Heat still have their work cut out from them to even these NBA Finals. Only if these preceedings are evened at two games apiece will we have a series. As it currently stands the 2020 Finals are at a crossroads , if Miami can pull off another, what many will see as improbable , win then it is truly on as it is now a best-of-three series. However if the Lakers regain the form they have displayed throughout the playoffs, they will have one hand wrapped around the Heat’s neck and the other grasping the Larry O’Brien trophy.
