More likely to return to Conference Finals: Heat or Lakers? Stephen A. makes his pick | First Take

More likely to return to Conference Finals: Heat or Lakers? Stephen A. makes his pick | First Take

Which team is more likely to make a return to the Conference Finals the Lakers or the Miami Heat I’m very curious on your answer Stephen A but since it’s International women’s day I know I’m GNA go first because I know you like to manifest Miami in the finals so

You can hear Esteban and get to go to South Beach when it comes to June but the answer is truly Miami because JJ is absolutely correct it feels like ever since that seven game losing streak they have turned the corner but honestly it’s based off of the western conference

Because if you’re going to stack them up against the Lakers path the Lakers have the path of most resistance if the playoffs started SL playay in started today the Lakers would go up against the Golden State Warriors in the play then they’d have to look up and play either

The Dallas Mavericks with Luca donic who is leading the league and scoring and also has so many clutch moments in the postseason and the Sacramento Kings just to make the playoffs and by the way the Nuggets they’re only one game back of the Timberwolves we could see a

Situation where coming in at eight the nuggets finished number one and then you’ve got joic then you’ve got that Squad that we just saw dismantle the Celtics down the stretch so yeah as much as the Lakers have been there the the Heat have a better path to make it moving forward go ahead

Wendy yeah this is a good question with an easy answer it’s unquestionably the heat when you look at the heat they’re in tied for six right now with Philadelphia and they have missed the most games due to player injuries of any team in the league they are not a six

Place team they are holding a six Place record because of injuries they are not a six Place team they also have the third easiest schedule coming in by opponent winning percentage they are primed to move up and finish in that top six they’ve got two games left against

Philadelphia who they’re tied with where they can do the separation on their own not even needing any help also the teams in the East that they’re going to have to compete with all of them are really banged up and you know I can’t predict injury Futures but Miami is getting

Healthier all those teams are getting more injured and you look at the Lakers I don’t see them getting into the play or getting out of the play in I don’t see them getting into the top six so the path for the heat is going to be easier

They’re a better team than their record shows the Lakers are more accurate to the record that they’ve had because they’ve generally been healthy with their star players I think it’s a no-brainer that the heat um I think it would be hard they’d have to pull some

Upsets but I think the Heat have the better shot well far well far be it for me to be the contrarian amongst you both but I’m going to say although I sincerely wish that you are right because you are absolutely telling the truth when every everybody in their mama

Knows where I want to become June May and June it’s Miami ain’t no doubt about it however I would say to y’all that even though the path is easier it still doesn’t mean that I’m going to say that it’s more likely for the heat to get to the Conference Finals than the Los

Angeles Lakers because let’s hyp let’s let’s engage in the hypothetical here because we’re allowed to because the S the standings are not finite it’s a situation right now where if you’re the Los Angeles Lakers and you get to avoid playing Denver until the Conference Finals per se who in the west can’t be

Had who else has stood out when they’ve gone against when the Lakers have gone against OKC we’ve seen what they’ve been able to do with them they’ve got the size to some degree to match up with Minnesota and now call Anthony towns is Out Sacramento can score in bunches on

Anybody as they show us time and time again but they can’t defend the way that we would like them to oh Golden State keeps going through one thing after another every time we believe in Dallas something happens even when Luca donic is dropping triple doubles they can

Still manage to lose to a Philadelphia 76ers Team without Joel andb on a Sunday afternoon so we got to take those things into consideration as well I would tell you we don’t mention New Orleans enough I will because they’ve got size they’ve got depth they’ve got athleticism and

They’ve been playing well they’re coming I’m not going to ignore them but when I look at the Los Angeles Lakers since February 1st 10 and5 offensive r rating third best in the NBA behind the Celtics and the thunder field goal percentage 51.4% tie for the best in the NBA three point shooting

40.1% third best in the NBA assist per game fifth best in the NBA and turnovers per game 10.4 second fewest now they can’t stop a cold in terms of their back court defensively with D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reeds that’s problematic and I get that and Anthony Davis has to step

Up because LeBron James has been doing everything but gift wrapped in him being the damn number one option in the face of the franchise and the best guy on the team and he doesn’t seem to want to take it in big games the way we would like

Him to but in the end when you look at the Western Conference I just say to myself other than Denver who could you look at the Lakers and say the Lakers can’t take when I look at Miami and I look at Jimmy Butler bam out bio Tyler

Hero they’ve only been on the court with one another 21 of 62 games this year there’s some cohesive iess they would have to work out they ranked 22nd in the league in offensive efficiency and 25th in rebounds per game looking at all of those things for Mi Amy could they make

A run sure but they did it last year you willing to bet on that this year I don’t know about that y’all go ahead J name well I think you can make that exact argument that you made like hey the matchups the favorability you can make that exact argument for the Miami Heat

Because in one postseason we saw last year they took down the bucks now mind you I know Giannis was coming off of an injury situation and if there’s one person that I think the Celtics lose sleepover it is absolutely playoff Jimmy it is this Miami Heat Squad and they

Seem like a team similar I’m not saying in talents or like best team right but similar to the Nuggets early when the season started the the uh Denver Nuggets they lost a couple of early Road games it just seemed like their complete focus wasn’t there and I think that’s because

They made it to the Pinnacle they made it to the NBA finals they won they won a championship and now they’re like okay our focus is showing up in the big games and also having our legs and be ready for those big moments I think the Miami Heat have paced themselves and now

They’re built to Surge especially come the second half of the Season let’s get back to joic and the Denver Nuggets did they prove they’re the best team in the NBA the Denver Nuggets have always been in my opinion when you tip off the ball the best team

In the NBA now I know the Celtics have the best record but they’re trying to do something that they haven’t done in a while they’re trying to bring home Banner 18 so they’re doing everything necessary to put themselves in the best position which is why the game versus

The Nuggets was a let down because we wanted to say Jason Tatum could take the next step we wanted to say that hey they’re going to be one of the hardest places to play because they have one of if not the best record at home they’re

Doing a lot of the things that help you improve except showing up in the biggest moments now I saw some bright spots for the Celtics I loved Drew holiday we got a little bit of his 20 uh 2021 Championship form knocking down threes being that clutch player late I like

Porzingis being able to stre stretch the floor he’s he’s got to help that efficiency a little bit I think it was like nine for 23 or something from the field with 23 points those are good boosts but at the end of the day it’s that guy right there Nicola yic they

Have the best player on the floor with the Best Supporting Cast that is tailored to his needs I mean watching the game yic can get it from the perimeter he’ll get into on ball actions he’ll find someone open and and and then you go to the inside the paint I mean

Right there he’s backing people down and just when you feel like okay I’m going to send help he’ll throw a lob as you see there to Aaron Gord who had 16 really crucial baskets or he’ll just finish you know with the right hand or the left he can’t be stopped on the

Inside he can’t stop finding his teammates like this is a team that is the best in the NBA the Denver Nuggets even though the Celtics are are doing I would say 99% of everything to put themselves in the position to rival them right now it’s the Nuggets Wendy I have

No doubt that you probably feel the same way knowing you um who’s the team you give the best best chance to beat Denver at this point because clearly after beating the best team in the NBA supposedly which is the Boston Celtics sweeping them in this series we’ve got

To look at the Denver Nuggets as the favorites who do you see as the biggest threat to them I think it’s definitely Boston I I think at full power Minnesota is interesting I don’t think that they have quite enough I would like to see that series with Carl towns healthy I don’t

Know if we’ll get it um I do think Boston and there’s a couple of reasons one Boston I believe is going to end up having homecourt advantage against anybody in the west they’ve got a six-game lead over Denver right now even though Denver has the tie break now I

Don’t think they’re going to lose that lead so Denver is almost unbeatable at home they did lose at home earlier this week to Phoenix in overtime but they’re very hard to beat at home they were Untouchable at home in the playoffs last year other than when Miami got him in

The one game in the finals so a series in this in this matchup would start in Boston and on the road Denver is just a little bit less potent now they are so they stress you out so much defensively the other thing is joic and

This is a this is a feather in his MVP case yic called on his team at the All-Star break I think he sent a group-wide text message and my guess is he’s not that active on the group text on the team but I don’t know for sure

But my guess is he’s not that active he sent a group message basically imploring his team let’s get it going and they’ve been almost untouchable since they came back from the break and I kind of think that that would start to show up in Road

Games but I do think that you have a little bit of an edge on them if you can get with a homecourt advantage and Boston would have that Stephen A if this was a seven game series and last night was game one I would still like Boston’s

Chances because I think that there are some matchup things that they found they used Drew holiday as a defender on yic in the fourth quarter and they had a little bit of success they were able to get some stops they used porzingis they brought some double teams they were very

Effective in limiting the nuggets from three-point range also the Nuggets bench played better than they usually do I feel like this would be a six or seven game series and if you had home court maybe you get them Wendy I can’t believe I have to say this to you because I love

You dear you know that don’t ever take that long again on International women’s day I mean you taking time away from Jan you understand what I’m saying Jan go ahead went on went on about a minute or two too long Wendy let really B go ahead

Shan go ahead look I agree with you that Boston probably has the best home court in the NBA based off what we’ve seen this season we’ve seen I mean we were coming off of not too long ago I know people remember the Cals and people remember the Nuggets but I know people

Should remember also the Golden State Warriors yes the Warriors are not the Warriors of three or two even so years ago but still they have a very potent home court which you’re right that could be the equalizer but what I will say is this the nuggets have wins twice against

Boston OKC they’ve beaten the Clippers and you’re looking at when they show up in those games how do they handle it they’ve handled the Celtics twice now maybe and and I learned this from Becky Hammond yesterday we asked the question when you’re going into a an NBA Finals

You know matchup she says that coaches don’t really necessarily show all of their cards maybe that’s what’s happening with the Celtics they’re experimenting they’re exploring what’s the best way for us to defend joic and maybe sometimes those plays resulted in joic scoring or joic find finding Gordon

Which we found quite a bit down the stretch and maybe they’re not putting so much emphasis on this one loss and they’re trying to find ways to win when it matters most but still when I see the head-to heads you just see a yic that’s able to slice and dice them just

Comfortably whether that was in Boston not too long ago or at home in Denver where their home court is is just as or if not maybe a little bit based off of this year a little less

More likely to return to Conference Finals: Heat or Lakers? Stephen A. makes his pick | First Take
Stephen A. Smith, Brian Windhorst and Chiney Ogwumike debate whether the Miami Heat or the Los Angeles Lakers are more likely to return to the Conference Finals and react to the Denver Nuggets’ 115-109 win over the Boston Celtics last night.
#firsttake #nba #espn

0:00 More likely to return to Conference Finals: Lakers or Heat?
2:45 Stephen A.’s answer
6:00 Have the Nuggets proved they are the best team in the NBA?
8:00 Brian Windhorst says the Celtics could be a threat to the Nuggets

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