NBA Finals Game 1 Open Thread

Here we are, Nuggets-Heat. Excited about this final. I don’t hate either team, which is an interesting change. Neither team is one of these superteams, which I loathe. Denver really has built the right way, with great drafting. And it’s not as if Jimmy Butler was some franchise defining player when he came to Miami after annoying too many people in Chicago and then moving through Minnesota and Philadelphia before coming to the Heat in 2019. Plus the Heat’s ability to develop undrafted free agents is just incredible. Spolestra is an astounding coach, even if his dad did draft Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan when he was Blazers GM, the one truly unforgivable thing in my life.

Either way, one great player will be in the pantheon of finals winners. Jokic does not need to win this to go to the Hall of Fame; he’s in already. Butler? He might need a title. Either way, they both deserve to win.

While I obviously had no respect for the Heat against the Celtics, picking Boston to sweep, I don’t bet on sports for a reason. So it’s better not to listen to me. I’ll take the Nuggets in 6, but I will take the Heat tonight, with the Nuggets rusty after so long off.

Should be fun!

And just to stir the pot a bit…..

Curious to see if the Heat can replicate the strategy they employed to upset the Bucks and Celtics… slide under the other team’s best player and injure him while trying to take a charge.

— Andrew Needham (@A_NeedhamNYU) June 2, 2023