Non Lakers Game Thread: The Conference Finals and The NBA Finals

Welcome and this is the Conference Finals discussion thread. As there are only one series left in each conference respectively and the Lakers are one of the four teams involved I'm going to do something a little bit different. Of course I'm going to have the different seedings and everything but I wanted to have a bit of a discussion thread for this as well.

First the seedings.

In the East there is the 8th seed Heat versus the 2nd seed Celtics.

Heat win the series 4-3

Game one will be on May 17th at 8:30 p.m. eastern time on TNT.

And the West there is the 1 seed Nuggets versus the 7th seed Lakers.

Nuggets won 4-0

Game one will be on May 16th at 8:30 p.m. eastern time on ESPN.

Now with all the way let's get to the discussion part of this thread.

As you can see the teams from three seasons ago when the Lakers won the championship are once again in the conference Finals. With different seedings but the point still stands that most of the core of all four teams are similar to the 2020 Conference Finals. With some different additions to the respective teams.

Now I know what most Lakers fans think about the 2020 playoffs and that they did indeed count because they were the toughest mentally and physically and stressful time in our world not just in the NBA but also the global pandemic in the social unrest around police brutality. I do agree that that was the toughest time mentally.

To go off on a little bit of a side point I remember thinking during those first few months of the pandemic that you know mentally it was so difficult for me to not interact with another human being or just you know exist you know in the world you know as a person. There was the feeling of time not moving and just the anxiety of that time.

The NBA did come up with a good solution to keep the pandemic outside of Florida in that localized central space it was very trying mentally for the NBA players and it was just pure basketball pure basketball and just team versus team coach versus coach in the best of 7 series each round for all the teams that made the playoffs.

How different is it going to be for the four teams that made the conference Finals three seasons ago and just that pure basketball on the court but also having the global pandemic and the social one rest on police brutality be different to this year's playoffs with fans you know the media you know about rising these players with different questions and the every other format that the 2020 playoffs had in each series once that particular series started?

The NBA Finals is going to be the Number 1 seed Denver Nuggets versus the 8th seed Miami Heat.

Series is 0-0.

The series starts on June 1st at 8:30 PM EST in Denver

With all that being said give me your thoughts in the article below and let's get this discussion going. As usual remember to follow all the rules and guidelines for the game