On Monday, the Eastern Conference Finals game seven was played in Boston where the Celtics looked to add a fourth consecutive win to complete a 0-3 comeback. The unbroken record however would have to wait to be broken at another time.
The Miami Heat who took an early 3-0 lead over the heavily favored Boston Celtics who managed to dig themselves partially out of the whole by winning the next three games forcing a game seven in Boston on Monday.
The Miami Heat came to play on Monday outscoring the home-team 22-15 in the first quarter, 30-26 in the second and was leading Boston 52-41 at the half. While Boston outscored the Heat in the third it wasn’t enough to bring Boston close enough to orchestrate any type of comeback. Boston fell to the Miami Heat 103-84.
The Denver Nuggets have been off since their game four win and sweep of the L.A. Lakers last Monday in L.A. The Nuggets would have a total of nine days off before the start of the Finals, and after Monday nights win, we now know who the Nuggets will be facing Thursday night in Denver.
Many look at the finals and are perplexed at the two final teams standing but if you ask either of these teams about their journey to this moment I’m certain they will both tell you that this was the plan, dating all the way back to the start of the season.
The Denver Nuggets have expressed their frustrations with how critics counted them out using the disrespect as fuel and shutting down the National narratives. The Heat are similar in their journey but have had to overcome much larger obstacles.
While the Nuggets outhustled the West in the regular season taking the number one seed heading into the postseason, the Heat on the other hand have largely been one of the biggest underdogs at the number 8th seed in the East. The Heat overcame the play-in-tournament to go head-to-head with the East’s number one seed in the Milwaukee Bucks where they defeated the Bucks in five games.
Miami went on to defeat the New York Knicks in 6 games before heading to Boston to win their first three games in a seven game series with the Celtics.
The Denver Nugget’s journey was a bit more expected despite being unexpected. Being the number one seed in the West the Nuggets defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games, then moving on to Phoenix (who many thought would defeat the Nuggets) to defeat the Suns in six games. The Nuggets then went on to play the L.A. Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, a team that like Miami came rose from the ashes and defeated a series of teams they weren’t expected to. Did we mention they swept the Lakers?
The Miami Heat have been a team that has defied the odds over and over again this post season, and the Nuggets are probably the most complete team in the league heading into Thursday night’s game one which is expected to be one of the most entertaining (or not) series in recent NBA history.
The stage is set and basketball fans get to watch two underappreciated juggernauts battle for the Larry O’Brien trophy.
