By mid-afternoon on Wednesday, the NBA announced that it did not have a single positive case among its 344 players, so, after a four-and-a-half month hiatus, everyone was heading for the final stretch in the Disney World bubble. Just before the pandemic broke out, the Lakers had beaten, one after the other, their two great rivals for the ring, the Bucks and the Clippers. In the duel with the current MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo , and the last MVP of the Finals, Kawhi Leonard , LeBron James had shown his most impressive version since arriving in Los Angeles. The favorites have not changed. Everything else, completely.
For starters, it is not 30 teams, but 22, and they will play only eight games to finish drawing the playoff picture . And the closest thing to the public, of course, will be the fans who appear on the screens that occupy three sides of the field. Silence, as in LaLiga, will try to fill with music and prerecorded ambient sound. Some player has said that it felt like he had been dropped in the middle of 2K. And not necessarily as a bad thing.
On this improbable scenario, LeBron begins the 'reconquest'. After a poor first year in Los Angeles, James sacrificed the team's young core for Anthony Davis , an extremely versatile interior and the best partner he has ever had in his career. The change compensates: the Lakers have been during good part of the course the best team in the NBA.
They have doubts, like everyone, but without an unrealistic adversary like the last Warriors, the bar becomes a little more human. Especially in the outside game, where they have lost important pieces: Rajon Rondo will be injured well into the playoffs and Avery Bradley gave up the 'bubble' to take care of his son. Yes there are Danny Green , Dwight Howard , or Alex Caruso , a great player hidden behind a meme, but when it comes down to it his options will depend on two of the most decisive players in the NBA.
The other candidates
The Milwaukee Bucks won their only NBA title with Lew Alcindor as star. It was 1971 and although Alcindor had embraced Islam three years ago, the legal process to officially call himself Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would not end until that summer. Almost half a century has passed and, except for the 1974 Finals, the Bucks have not been as close to the ring as now: they have the best record in the league (53-12) and the most likely MVP of the season, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Bucks spin the entire plan around the Greek phenomenon. In attack, a rifle squad opens the paint to a devastating player near the rim. In defense, a perimeter full of large, long and fast men, with a scheme designed to deprive the opponent of the shots that advanced statistics indicate as most effective: within the zone and triple from the corners.
Their problem is the same as last year, they still have to show that they can transfer the success of the regular phase to the playoffs , where rotations are shortened, the depth of the closet is not as decisive and more is required of the second and third swords.
That is why there are those who consider that a duel for the West between Lakers and Clippers would be an advanced Finals. The former 'Poor Brother' added Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to a group that a year ago, without stars, was a great revelation. Doc Rivers spent much of the course alternating between his two struts to reserve strength, but after a four-month hiatus there is no longer any reason to hold back the gallop.
A long, versatile squad with two of the NBA's most comprehensive forwards and huge defense potential: No one has that many weapons to throw against LeBron or Antetokounmpo.
There are plenty of incentives
The rest watch from below, although such a strange scenario lends itself to surprises. The Raptors of Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka , reigning champions, have shown that despite having lost Leonard, they are still one of the smartest and best-competing teams in the NBA, although there is something that Kawhi contributed failed to replace: the ability to score when the parquet fills with mud.
The break came when the Rockets by James Harden and Russell Westbrook were betting everything on an "ultra-small" quintet, with nobody above 2.01. An all or nothing, like Disney's own 'bubble'. When Jayson Tatum made the jump from promise to Celtics star, when the Doncic - Porzingis couple finally started to carbure and when the Sixers needed a break more: to give Ben Simmons time to recover and seek order in a project that it does not finish defining itself.
After four and a half months, the NBA returns to Disney World with a two-course menu: starter Zion Williamson (the reason the NBA invited the Pelicans) and main a duel between Lakers and Clippers, two of the big favorites to the title.
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