Basketball, NBA | LeBron’s Lakers get into the West final and Miami Heat will play the East

Led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, these unpredictable but exciting Lakers will face Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets for a spot in the Finals. The Nuggets have never won a ring and have not even played in a Final while the Lakers are, along with the Boston Celtics, the most successful team in history (17 titles each).

Nuggets and Lakers met in the Western final in the 2020 ‘bubble’ with a victory for LeBron’s team that would later be proclaimed champion. Apart from that pandemic season, this is the first Western final for those in purple and gold since 2010, when the team of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol conquered the ring against the Celtics.

No matter what happens from now on, these highly deserving Lakers have staged a resurrection for the NBA history books: from a franchise bankrupt for months to a fiercely competitive team in the playoffs (via ‘play-in’) thanks to a radical transformation in the transfer market and a blind faith in its possibilities. A masterful LeBron got his first game with more than 30 points in the playoffs since 2020 and came away with 30 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists.

The Miami Heat advance to the Eastern final

The Miami Heat, who reached the playoffs as eighth in their conference and suffering a lot in the ‘play-in’, eliminated the New York Knicks (fifth) this Friday and qualified for the Eastern final, completing an enormous feat (96 -92, 4-2 in the series).

This is the third conference final in four years for the Heat and their second straight after losing in 2022 to the Boston Celtics in seven games. Miami’s rival will be the winner of the seventh game between the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers to be played this Sunday.