The Miami Heat is the black horse of this season. This team that nobody believed in and yet are in the NBA Finals. Yes, that's right, they beat the Boston Celtics in six games. After winning the first two games, the Heat did not relax, and Eric Spoelstra's players were able to deliver the coup de grace and avoid a crucial Game 7. Bam Adebayo drove on everyone in Game 6 with 32 points and 14 rebounds. It was too much for the Celtics, who logically surrendered and went to Cancun.
Cancun refers to Nick Van Exel dropping four words that would write the legend of teams eliminated over the decades to come. As the rallying cry is made, one of the players yells, "1,2,3, Cancún"! His name is Nick van Exel. The Lakers were winning 3-0 at that point and were torn apart until they lost the series 4-3 to the Stockton Jazz and Malone after that. Shaq seemed furious to ask that Van Exel be a trader right after and left for the Nuggets shortly after that.
This year's Lakers are no jokers and sent the Nuggets to Cancun, who couldn't do anything against the Lakers' two-headed monster, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The Lakers' experience defeated Denver's well-oiled collective. Even though Los Angeles won 4-1, it wasn't fun for them.
Miami Heat #5 - #1 Los Angeles Lakers.
This is this year's final. The two teams never faced each other in the NBA Finals, and the Lakers won both games during the regular season.
And as in the regular season, the brave warriors of Miami fought with their weapons but could not climb this mountain that is the Lakers. Against Lebron James' Los Angeles Lakers, the Heat was diminished by injuries to Dragic and Adebayo. Jimmy Butler embraces his leadership role and performs excellently to keep his team afloat. He scored 40 points in Game 3 and 35 points in Game 5. Two games that he finished in triple-double. Tired in Game 6, he lost with his team.
Los Angeles won the series 4–2 and won the NBA title. LeBron James is again named MVP of the Finals, reinforcing his legend a little more. He won his fourth NBA title and his first with the Lakers. Anthony Davis won his first NBA championship ring.
Jimmy Butler and his gave everything but let us pay tribute to the vanquished who fought to the end.
The Lakers' season was marked by the tragic loss of one of the best players in Lakers history or history, Kobe Bryant, in a helicopter crash with his daughter and other passengers. She finished with a 17th NBA title, which shows that karma does things right.
They are now tied with the Boston Celtics, their historic rival, in the number of titles won.
The end of the season in the bubble at Disney World allowed the NBA to glean revenues that seemed lost with the health situation. But this gain appears more like a small lifeboat sailing on the ocean of financial losses into which the League is plunging.
From a purely sporting and health point of view, the NBA bubble is overall a success. Despite exceptional conditions and the absence of an audience, the matches could be played, and a champion was crowned. Adam Silver's teams can also congratulate themselves on having discovered no cases of COVID-19 for the duration of this bull experiment. But beyond the point of sport and health, let's look at the economic fallout; Sports Business Daily tells us that the bubble of Orlando has allowed the League to stem the loss of $ 1.5 billion expected with the crisis. With its $ 180 million invested in organizing the 172 basketball games at Mickey's, the Big League would have greatly limited the damage. Virtual fans, various activations, a sharp increase in fan engagement on social networks: the NBA teams sent to Orlando and the Association itself were able to continue to respect their sponsorship contracts during the 100 days of bubble, and thus not lose as much as could be expected, if the competition had never resumed.
But unfortunately, this economy will be far from making up for all the losses the League will count after this catastrophic year. It is clear that at the financial level, the impact of the health crisis on all revenues of the 2019-20 season has been terrible for the NBA. Despite a good evolution of digital audiences in the bubble, TV audiences fell by 37% in the Playoffs and caused the League to lose much money. In addition, The Athletic tells us that the losses related to canceling the 258 regular season games are estimated at $ 700 million.
Despite the revenues recovered in the Orlando bubble rescue operation, the Big League must prepare for very complicated months financially. The most extended season in the history of American basketball will inevitably leave traces, and we will see it very quickly from the Free Agency.
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