2023 NBA Finals Preview: Nuggets versus Heat

The NBA Finals start on June 1st as the Nuggets battle the Heat for the Larry O'Brien trophy. The two teams going for the championship had way different journeys to the Finals.

Nuggets: The Denver Nuggets come into the playoffs as the number 1 seed in the Western Conference with two-time MVP, Nikola Jokic. Jokic being the player that he is one of the most dynamic passers in the game and him constantly getting triple-doubles, makes the Nuggets one of the most dominant teams in basketball, and it shows as he is the center with the most all-time assists per game. He would have a huge cast around him to help as PG Jamal Murray who came off a torn ACL, he would come back to playing like himself and avergae 20 points per game in the 22-23 season. The pick-and-roll game of Jokic and Murray can be really unstoppable at times, as Jokic can find the open Murray for 3 or pick go himself inside to the basket.

The 22--23 season for the Nuggets was smooth sailing as getting the number 1 seed in a stacked western conference and no major injuries occurred in the regular season and were top 5 in offensive rating in NBA. With players helping like Michael Porter JR and Bruce Brown, who they picked up from free agency. They started off their playoffs starts by winning in the first round vs the Timberwolves in 5 games. While they let the Timberwolves win one and have a comeback win, the next game they would make sure they won and clinched it with Jamal Murray's 35 points and Jokic's triple-double. They would play the Phoenix Suns in the next round.

Going up against the Suns, a lot of people would mostly predict that Suns would outplay them as the duo Kevin Durant and Devin Booker seeing more eyes from the national media, but the depth of their team would hurt them. When trading for KD, they gave up 2 of their young pieces in the starting lineup that would be major in the defense in Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson. They would more rely on KD and Booker as Chris Paul would get an injury in the middle of game 2 and would be out for the rest of the series it really exposed the lack of depth and the Nuggets would take advantage. They were up 2-0 in the series after the Paul Injury and the Suns would tie it up but they could not keep up with the depth and would lose the next 2 games including losing by 25 in the elimination game.

They would go up against the Lakers in the WCF and would sweep them in 4 games and all Jokic in the series and would show how he is one of the best players in the game. With the the help of Jamal Murray, who averaged 32.5 points per game in the series. A lot of the talk was how the coverage was all about the Lakers and Lebron and not the play of Jokic and the Nuggets, and it was true and even Lebron shifted into the coverage after the series by teasing retirement and making it all about him and not about the team going to the Finals.

Heat: Coming into the 22-23 season after losing to 7 to Celtics in the past year's playoffs, the Heat came back with not that much expectations to go back to ECF since media would think they would not have a chance with Sixers/Bucks being more likely. It looked like it was going to happen as they completed the season with a record of 44-38 and 7th in the Eastern Conference and would be in play-in. They lost to the Hawks and were losing to the Bulls with 3 minutes left and then Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and Max Strus all hit big shots in the last 3 minutes and won 102-91.

The #8 seed heat would go up against the #1 seed bucks and everyone would be taking the Bucks considering that they were the #1 seed that is when Jimmy Butler turned into superstar mode and scored more than 30 points in 4 of the 5 games including 56 points in game 4 and 42 points in the game 5 and eliminating the #1 seed Milwaukee Bucks. This was surprising as the Bucks, coming of a ring 2 years ago would try to go for it again but failed even with their main core intact and looking like they were gonna have another run to the Finals. While Giannis did get injured for 2 games, it does not make up for the disappointing series and how they were embarrassed by Butler. That is where the Heat defense came through and delivered vs the Bucks and in the regular season coming it top in defensive rating.

in the Eastern Conference, they would play the Knicks and win in 6, it was a lot of Jimmy and Adebayo being themselves and dominating with the struggles of Julius Randle, they would hold up the Knicks and make it to ECF for a rematch with the Celtics.

It Looked like they were going to sweep them easily, going uo 3-0 and a lot of that was the help of role players Caleb Martin and Max Strus, who would be hitting the 3's while Butler and Adebayo were connecting in the pain and in the mid-range and that's what helped them against the Celtics. Then in game 4 happened, Jaylen Brown said, "Don't let us get one." That's when the comeback started and Celtics would win Game 4,5,6, with all the help of big games from Jason Tatum. Including a Derick White tip-in game-winner in game 6 to push the series to game 7.

Game 7 was when the Heat took over and blew out the Celtics with the help of Caleb Martin and Jimmy Butler, who scored 26 and 28 points each and was helped when Tatum and Brown struggled, with 8 turnovers by Brown and Tatum going 5 for 13, plus going 9 for 42 from the three-point line. These were the reasons the Heat won the first 3 games, the elite play of Jimmy Butler, and the role players who are hitting the 3's.

Now with each team set up and the players they have, my prediction for the finals is Nuggets will Sweep the Heat in 4 games. Reason is how much the depth of the Nuggets with MPJ, Bruce Brown, and Jeff Green having considerable chances to score with Jokic's vision will help them when we have seen the Heat struggle on offense and not make shots and mostly the Struggles of Bam Adebayo on offense not able make shots or layups. Jokic will be able to dominate the floor going against Bam and his vision will help him against the Heat. While Jimmy will most likely score, relying on the players who will hit 3's and struggle to contribute to the Heat's losses in the playoffs will be their downfall.