2020 NBA Bubble Ball Finals: Lakers vs Heat - Who You Got?

rooting heat, think lakers in 5 prob idk

I'm thinking Lakers in 6 but possibly just lebron james, he's playing pretty inspired ball right now
still don't really enjoy the bullyball/instafoul nature of his game but damned if you don't have to respect it

Seems weird to me for the Lakers to be here, I don't see any reason they wouldn't be the favorites though.

Not sure how much joy I'd get personally out of these Lakers winning the chip but hate them or not it was a traumatic start to the year for a lot of Laker fans, so good for them if they get this.

I'd like to see a long series lakers in 6

Lakes in 5, my guess

LBJ with nothing but a team of misfits and mediocrities in Cleveland snatched a ring away from a great GSW team, so LBJ plus Ant Davis with a team full of misfits and mediocrities should def be considered the favorites.

i have no real prediction cos the bubble is a strange place but im saying heat in 6 for the helluvit

"lakers in 6" is trending

its the safe easy bet

i have no read on this other than i've been wrong about everything involving the entire bubble so my pick is the lakers in somewhere between 4 and 7 games (inclusive)

i think the miami el heat will win

lakers in 7 but i wouldn't be shocked by the heat in 6 or 7

The Heat have a chance for sure.

Lakers winning would be extremely depressing

Honestly after game 4 of the last series I don’t trust any team to beat the lakers ever

the refs will decide who wins

Ugh

bron and brow must be rebuked for uniting upon the lake with no lake

"frank vogel needs a timeout"

kentavious avignon-pope

man that extremely giant finals/youtube ad on center court is very bad

AD gonna feast this series

i picked lakers in 6

i cant remember what i picked

You let the Lakers knock down open threes this will be over in four

yeah theyre getting some very easy looks

the heat look small out there

did someone grease up the basketball haha

so far doesnt seem good for the heat

i think the lakers will win

yes my earlier prediction is looking spot on

heat too small, do not have enough lebron jameses

lebron jameses are not evenly distributed across the league

i think it's a fact to which the league must wake up

will the heat dare to introduce meyers leonard to the game?

AD might have no ability to lead a team to this stage on his own without superstar help... but I don't think anyone in the league is more unstoppable or impactful on both ends once they're there than he is. Like Bam was looking like one of if not the best overall player in these Eastern conference playoffs... and AD has effortlessly dominated him while completely locking up half his team on defense.

lost the game, potentially lost Goran, and you're now a meme:

pic.twitter.com/xREKQ307EH

— rebekah entralgo fernández (@rebekahentralgo) October 1, 2020

it will really suck if this turns out to be a noncompetitive finals

Goran thing totally sucks. Bubble playoffs started off so well...

yikes, this may be a sweep if goran is done

it will really suck if this turns out to be a noncompetitive finals

The fact of a first game blowout isn't all that indicative usually. Teams bounce back as a rule. What's much more troubling is the probable loss of Dragic and having Butler hobbled by an ankle injury. At the competitive level of an NBA Finals your starting five can't be half-crippled, especially your one and two options on offense..

torn plantar fascia for goran? :(

bam was hurt, too. legit sucks for the heat.

Yikes these injuries...

Jimmy’s ankle turned and touched the ground no idea how he continued to play.

welp

The Heat say Goran Dragic (left foot) and Bam Adebayo (MRI revealed a neck strain) are doubtful for Friday's Game 2 of the NBA Finals

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) October 1, 2020

well that fucking sucks

lEbroN hAd a cAkeWalk fOr This TiTLe

but can he do this in the East?

gee this is kinda reminding me of last year's finals

gross

the miami hurt

i don't think 'vet who only gives 100% on a 1 seed team' is an archetype deserving of celebration

― ciderpress, Tuesday, October 13, 2020 1:27 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

tbf hes been good in the playoffs on lesser teams too

yeah i was exaggerating but it does contribute to lack of parity on some level when teams trying to get over the playoff hump can't rely on these guys to show up and need to look elsewhere

derek fisher has way more rings than rondo ;)

So I would call it embarrassing in the sense that it doesn't have much obvious cohesion or an attractive on-court identity

yeah this is what I meant, just a totally soulless, joyless team

otm

i def feel like this lakers team would get its ass kicked in a 7 game series by either of the three previous lebron title teams

I don't know... Anthony Davis is good as hell.

Like, if Lebron is covering Lebron, who's got Tony?

I guess Bosh would be pretty nice but I don't know about that Cavs team

LeBron would refuse to guard LeBron

these guys basically exist to get the lakers more rings

― ciderpress, Tuesday, October 13, 2020 10:27 AM (three hours ago)

Is this supposed to be a criticism?

no, just an observation of the lakers/lebron vet vacuums combining

i do think the east has 4 teams that could take this team down next year with some modest offseason moves, not sure about the west or whats going on with the clipper ships

pic.twitter.com/r9uXcOXcmj

— pickuphoop (@pickuphoop) October 12, 2020

those heat teams would destroy this lakers team... better/younger lebron, bosh in his prime is a good match up on AD, wade, much better role players.

after the first two games davis’ contribution was mostly on defense, he didn’t have a dominant offensive series. the idea that you need 1 player to guard him or you will lose isn’t really borne out by this series to say nothing of the rest of his career. and even with AD on the floor, the heat had a stretch of games putting up offensive ratings thar would’ve rated above the no 1 offense in the league. both those heat and cavs teams had floor stretching bigs the lack of which hurt the heat once the lakers realized they could just leave davis in the paint all game (in game 3 they put him on olynyk and the heat shredded them). lebron and AD are a great pair of players, the current league could not overcome
that, but bron’s previous title teams had legit big 3s and better role players, particularly shooters, than this lakers team.

i think olynk should have played in game 6. and herro should have played even more, when the lakers were packing the paint the heat needed a second ball handler when jimmys drive and kick game got shut down

iirc the heats roster for the 13/14 season was pretty av

i def feel like this lakers team would get its ass kicked in a 7 game series by either of the three previous lebron title teams

herro had an awful series sadly... agree w/ you about olynyk. spo prob went w/ too much of bam -- i understand why but he played like butt for most of the series and no olynyk out there allowed davis to sit in the paint for 40 mins per game

I had a challopeno popper about Duncan Robinson being a better long term piece than Herro, I might dust that off next year

i mean really there were no adjustments in game 6 that would have covered for butler and the heat expending absolutely everything they had to win game 5.

it's funny to talk about herro as if there is any sort of established baseline for him...he's really young and has had a lot of peaks and valleys in performance already. i don't think we have any idea what he is beyond an intriguing talent who has had a few flashes.

well duncan robinson is 26 and herro is 20

when you talk about huge beneficiaries of the bubble, robinson and herro go to the top of the list for me as rookies who got to play four playoff series w/o having to ever handle the ball or shoot in front of a road playoff crowd.

that having been said i thought both played above expectations... robinson held up far better than most ppl thought and was basically the second best player for them in the finals which is pretty crazy and explains why they lost but he also had a few huge games and wasn't overwhelmed physically in a series w/ a bunch of grown ass dudes, which was my major concern. herro was a borderline revelation, the stuff he was doing as a ball handler, finishing at the rim, passing out of the pick and roll... we did not see any of that in the regular season. he was having big problems finishing over anyone and then in the bubble was like dropping and 1 mixtape lay ups on anthony davis and jayson tatum. to me the question is how much further he can push it, dan le batard said on zach lowe's pod a little bit ago that the heat think he can be better than devin booker. personally i see him as more of a supercharged lou williams type, a second unit monster who can singlehandedly win games but w/ the added benefit of having a modern killer three point/step back arsenal in his game. there's a pretty decent gap between sixth man of the year and devin booker so we'll see which end he lands closer to

yeah i mean you are saying things that basically make sense but i just need another season of herro before i'm ready to even suggest what he actually is. has to be one of the most unique rookie seasons ever.

you are saying things that basically make sense

this is the promise i make to this board ever day

nba talking heads - keep making sense

lol

i really dont buy any speculation that herro might be a 6th man. he will get starter level contract offers and he will be a starter.

i just realized that demarcus cousins is gonna get a ring

do they give those to people who have played 0 minutes for the franchise

iirc if youre not on the playoff roster the active players vote whether to give u a share of the playoff bonus/a ring

boogie will almost certainly get the nod, if just to keep AD happy.

ok

i dont think he'll get one.

really sad career trajectory for that dude.

yeah never really had a chance to establish himself outside the Bad Franchise

we never got to see what he and brow woulda looked like in the playoffs. they were just figuring it out when he blew his achilles.

i think he gets one but doesn't wear it out

https://thesportsrush.com/nba-news-lakers-championship-will-have-an-asterisk-pat-riley-takes-dig-at-lebron-james-and-co-after-historic-bubble-title/

guess we need to go through the rosters and injury status of every nba finals matchup

there should be a one to four asterisks rating on each championship

― lag∞n, Monday, October 12, 2020 1:24 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

keep coming back to this

It could be like those internet polls where anyone can vote as many times as they like.

2011-2016 had minimal asterisks but they've been increasing since

all human life since the invention of agriculture should have several asterisks

(shrugs) yeah, but it was invented independently at several different times in different places, so what can you do?

pat riley is such a baby

it was just recently that i heard how riley became head coach of the lakers, what a weird story