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Howdy, folks. Welcome back to Layup Lines. It’s Sykes, once again, here to usher you into another weekend of basketball. Not that much basketball, though. We’re still waiting on the Eastern Conference Finals to wrap up.
But you know what I just realized? No matter who comes out of this series between the Miami Heat and Celtics, we are all winners. We’re getting a historic NBA Finals regardless.
On one hand, we’ll get the Miami Heat who would’ve absolutely put together one of the most impressive postseason runs we’ve ever seen. Miami would be the second No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals in league history and the first to do it since the Knicks went in 1999.
On their way, Miami would’ve knocked off the teams with the two best records in the NBA in the Bucks and Celtics as a No. 8 seed. Those 1999 Knicks did the same thing.
That, alone, would be pretty epic. But then you take into account the historic playoff run Jimmy Butler has had and it gets even better.
But let’s talk about the Celtics, though. It goes without saying that Boston quite literally has to make history to make it to the NBA Finals.
The Celtics are only down 3-2 now after losing the first three games of the series to the Heat. And, well, it looks like our chaotic fever dream might actually come to pass? The Celtics could seriously be the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3-0 deficit.
If they make it to the NBA Finals, that’s seriously the greatest comeback in NBA postseason history. Teams are 150-0 when falling down 3-0 in a best-of-7 playoff series. History is literally against Boston right now — it doesn’t matter that they’re playing a No. 8 seed. That’d still be insanely impressive.
The Nuggets are just there waiting. They’ve got a center who has done things that only Wilt Chamberlain has done in his NBA career on their team in Nikola Jokic. He’s one of the most skilled big-men we’ve ever seen on an NBA court.
Oh, and, by the way, the Nuggets are trying to win their first championship in team history. No big deal or anything.
Regardless of what happens, we have a lot to look forward to talk about when it comes to the 2023 NBA Finals. Don’t listen to any of that talk about how bad the ratings might be or how there’s no interesting things about any of the teams there. That’s simply just untrue.
Exciting basketball is on the horizon. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Speaking of interesting basketball, everyone keeps talking about how the Denver Nuggets aren’t interesting at all. And that’s simply not true.
I actually took the time to prove it by writing about 9 compelling storylines to follow surrounding the team. It took me, like, 15 minutes to come up with these. That’s quite literally how easy it was.
One of the more compelling stories was how good Jamal Murray has been.
“Not only has he shattered the notion of Murray only having big performances in the NBA Bubble, but he’s also outplayed all-time greats on the biggest stage of his career so far.
Jamal Murray averaged 32.5 points through four games in the NBA Conference Finals while shooting at least 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the free-throw line.
He did that while outdueling both LeBron James and Anthony Davis.”
We’ve literally been watching this dude ascend into stardom. And that’s not interesting? Please. There’s plenty more where that came from.
Shootaround
— Somebody created a burner account on Twitter that only defends NBA ref Eric Lewis. We need to know who did this.
— Jayson Tatum keeps making Boston Celtics history, which says a lot about how good he is. Bryan Kalbrosky has this stat comparing him to Larry Bird.
— Erik Spoelstra is tired of the underdog talk when it comes to the Miami Heat. Cory Woodruff has more.
— Charles Barkley needs to put this Boston accent away. Goodness gracious.
That’s all, folks. Enjoy the weekend.
