NBA Playoffs 2014: Miami Heat Advance to 4th Straight Finals; Why They Are Favorites to Three-Peat Against Thunder or Spurs
For the fourth consecutive season, NBA fans will watch the Miami Heat play in the NBA Finals.
The Heat defeated the Pacers Friday in Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, 117-92. This is the third straight year Miami has eliminated the Pacers from the playoffs. Last year, the Heat eliminated the Pacers in a series that went the full seven games.
This postseason was hardly the same. For the last two months, the Pacers have looked lost. Center Roy Hibbert has had multiple games where he didn't score a single basket, and Paul George has disappointed many times in big games. Last night, George had just one point at halftime when the game was out of hand before the Heat put in their bench players.
For the Heat, this is just business. Ever since LeBron James and Chris Bosh came down to South Beach, the team has made it to the NBA Finals all four years together.
The last time an NBA team made four consecutive finals appearances was the '82-'85 Lakers team led by Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The Heat will be going for the famous "3-peat," and that hasn't been accomplished since the Lakers did so from 2000-02 with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. It's an extremely rare feat in other sports -- no NFL team has ever won three straight Super Bowls. Only the '90s Buffalo Bills can say they made four consecutive Super Bowls. Unfortunately those games didn't end too well for Buffalo fans.
In the Finals, the Heat will take on either the San Antonio Spurs or the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Neither of these possible matchups come as a surprise because the last two Finals have featured Heat-Thunder and Heat-Spurs. By far, the better matchup for the Heat is with the Thunder. The Heat defeated OKC in the 2012 Finals. 4 games to 1. LeBron James is a dominating 14-4 against Kevin Durant. The Thunder don't have the defense to stop the perimeter shooting of the Heat.
Then there's the Spurs. This old team just doesn't go away does it? San Antonio held a 3-2 series lead against Miami in last year's Finals before Ray Allen hit the biggest shot of his career, maybe in basketball history. The Spurs play far better team defense than the Thunder and have better depth coming off the bench. The bench play starts with Argentine guard Manu Ginóbili, who is playing like he's 27 again.
The Spurs also have the championship experience from Tony Parker, Ginóbili and Tim Duncan and have a tested coach in Gregg Popovich who's been here many times before. This may be the last ride for the Spurs if they can win it all.
There's no doubt the Heat will be the favorites to win the Finals as they should. You don't make it to four straight championships by mistake. Dwyane Wade is chasing his fourth championship as a player and always steps up his game come playoff time. And with the best player on the planet in James still hungry from more gold, their chances look pretty good.
Maybe Pat Riley knew what he was doing the entire time.
The 2014 NBA Finals is scheduled to tip off Thursday night, June 5.
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