The Perspective

- Keyontae Johnson

- Who can compete with Gonzaga?

- LaMelo's first couple of games

- Ja Morant looks to build upon ROTY

- Did OKC strike gold with Poku & Maledon?

- Emergence of THT

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The Thunder and Lakers have reached an agreement to trade Dennis Schroeder for the 28th pick in this year’s NBA Draft, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA. Danny Green is expected to be apart of this trade as well to match salaries. The Thunder will look to expand this trade to flip Danny Green for more assets.

The Detroit Pistons have traded G Bruce Brown to the Brooklyn Nets for F Dzanan Musa and a 2021 second round pick, sources tell ESPN.

OKC has traded Chris Paul to Phoenix for Ricky Rubio, Kelly Oubre, Ty Jerome, Jalen Lecque and draft compensation, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.

Milwaukee Bucks have traded Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, and three first round picks to New Orleans Pelicans for Jrue Holiday, sources tell @ShamsCharania.

Houston Rockets are trading Robert Covington to Portland Trailblazers for Trevor Ariza, 2020 first round pick, and 2021 first round pick, sources tell @wojespn.

Milwaukee Bucks are trading Donte Divincenzo, Ersan Ilyasova, and DJ Wilson to Sacaramento for Bogdan Bogdanovic in a sign & trade deal, sources tell @wojespn.

Milwaukee’s Wesley Matthews will decline his $2.7M player option for the 2020-21 season and become a free agent, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. With the impending trade of Danny Green. We shall most likely see the Lakers make a strong push to sign Wesley Matthews to fill that role.

Avery Bradley is expected to decline his $5M player option with the Lakers and enter free agency, via ESPN.

Updated look at OKC Thunder's future draft picks

2020:

Nuggets 1st round pick

Lakers 1st-rd pick

2021:

Own 1st

Heat 1st

HOU pick-swap

2022:

Own 1st

Clips 1st

Suns 1st

2023:

Own 1st

Clips pick-swap

Heat 1st

2024:

Own 1st

Clips 1st

HOU 1st

2026:

Own 1st

Clips 1st

HOU 1st

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- Anthony Edwards

- LaMelo Ball

- James Wiseman

- Deni Avdija

- Tyrese Haliburton

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1Q - Miami is competing, but that should be to no surprise for anyone who knows this team. They made it priority to protect the paint and recover from there. Heat picked up right where they left off offensively in Game 2, leveraging the gravity of their shooters as much as possible to create easy baskets. Short closeouts, early help, not putting themselves in a position where they can be beat off the dribble. Living with the kick outs and protecting the paint. This is the complete game plan from Miami defensively. A little past halfway the first quarter mark, the Lakers have more turnovers than shot attempts. This game is mirroring the Game 1 start, when LAL fell behind 23-10 into the first time out because of the sloppy play from the Lakers as the Heat took advantage of the turnovers. LAL had 9 turnovers in Game 2. They have 9 turnovers already with 4:48 left in the 1st Q. LAL’s margin for error is quite high from a talent standpoint especially with Dragic and Bam out. After all that, LAL trail by only 3, at 26-23. A really disappointing end to the 1st quarter for the Heat after their hot start.

2Q - Kuzma gets more opportunities to score/find a rhythm with Davis in foul trouble. Reason for his scoring drop off in the postseason is mostly due to LeBron+AD’s minutes going up, and Rondo’s increased role. The defensive game plan from Miami is eerily similar to the one employed vs. Milwaukee when they went all out to stop Giannis, but this one is solely focused on stopping dribble penetration. The big thing for the Heat in this game has been keeping the Lakers out of the paint so far. LA only has 12 points in the paint, also have only gave up one offensive rebound too. Butler has taken 9 shots in LAL’s paint already, making 6, taking advantage of the absence of Davis against LAL’s lineup with Morris at the 5. As solid as Miami's gameplay and help has been defensively, the doubles still aren't working. LAL trail 58-54 at the half. Credit a resilient effort from Miami, though LAL also hurt themselves with 14 turnovers.

3Q - Miami's offense is making strides. Feels like the Lakers have been in rotation more tonight than in the first two games combined. Short closeouts. Show help. Protect the paint. It's what Miami continued to do all game. Harder for LAL to switch AD over to Butler, as they have selectively in the series, due to his foul trouble. The Lakers defense hadn’t been sharp in this game (it wasn't sharp in game 2 too). The Heat were able to get a lot of great looks on the 2nd pass off of drive and kick actions. LAL closed on a 9-2 run to make it 85-80 heading into the 4th Q. After the last play of the quarter I would expect a heavy dose of LeBron in P&R in the 4th. This feels like a game where the Lakers are going to have to use LeBron to bend Miami's defense. That feels like the one action Miami hasn't felt as comfortable guarding/sending help/showing help. Davis started to pick things up in the 3rd, hitting 4 of 6 FG’s for 10 points.

4Q - LAL open the 4th Q on an 11-4 run, after closing the 3rd on a 9-2 run. That’s 20-6 overall, turning a 12-point deficit into a 91-89 lead. Lakers with just 4 points in the paint about half way through the 4th. 30 overall, the Heat have done a good job defending tonight. Butler got going and the Lakers were giving into the switch just too easily. Miami have turned to Jimmy Butler for isolation scoring down the stretch, with LAL not double-teaming, and it’s been effective enough to maintain their lead. Miami defeats the Lakers 115-104 in Game 3 as LAL’s lead is now 2-1 in the series. Jimmy Butler went off for 40 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds.

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1Q - Lakers only have two fast break points but they are getting early offense if not a transition bucket. Dwight Howard with six early points. His verticality is helping the Lakers break down the Heat even when matched up with Leonard. They're just so much more physical than the Heat. You just have no chance defensively against LeBron with the Robinson-Herro-Leonard trio. LeBron + AD picking apart Miami’s zone here with interior passing. Miami is playing this zone to spread out by trying to takeaway three. This won't be much of a game too much longer if they don't start to protect the paint. LAL took a 29-23 lead out of the 1st Q. They generated good looks inside and out, and shot 52% from the field despite missing a bunch of open 3’s (3 for 12), while MIA shot 41% on tougher looks.

2Q - Miami needed to do a way better job in these mins where LeBron is off the floor, unlike last game. That they did as it is just a four point game. Hell of an effort by Miami which never stops moving and screening on offense. Butler’s basically driving everything that happens within Miami’s offense to begin with. Jae just keeps plugging away. Fighting hard at the top of the zone and also making plays on the offensive end. Lakers defenders have to make a ton of decisions every possession. Lakers are getting completely wide open 3’s as Miami sells out to try and protect the paint. They have still found way to get to the rim, and are 10 for 13 in the paint. Meanwhile, they’ve allowed MIA only 7 attempts (4 makes) in their paint. Beautiful offense from the Lakers utilizing pass fakes against the zone. LAL held a 68-54 halftime lead. As much as MIA sold out to prevent interior scoring, LAL still outscored them 30-18 in the paint. No team has been able to keep LeBron and AD specifically away from the rim.

3Q - Gonna be tough for Miami if Anthony Davis can keep hitting those midrange shots at the baseline. Without Bam, the Lakers are getting whatever they want inside. Davis is utterly dominant. Heat are playing hard but this is just steady, incremental accumulation of one team being better than another. Heat found some offensive traction using Butler as the roll man, to take advantage of that switching defense. Miami found success hitting the roll man against the Lakers' screen coverage might force an adjustment or two. LAL led 103-93 after 3. Miami’s using Frank Vogel’s pre Game 1 key, the FT line, to hang around. As they were a +15.

4Q - The Lakers' switching has taken away many of their usual actions. Best offense has been Butler getting downhill. It’s cool seeing all the ways Tyler Herro has learned from Goran Dragic offensively. The ball-screen craft, the probing in lane to keep his dribble alive, attempting audacious finishes at the rim. Since the Lakers always defend and score inside, they can live with the odd off shooting night from KCP and Green. Rondo has hit some MONSTER shots this postseason. There was another one. Just some pretty terrible offense in the 4th. Miami's had plenty of chances to get this closer. Not getting quality looks. Big closeout here by LeBron, not quite Game 5 WCF vibes but he's hitting some big shots. Lakers fight off the Heat to win Game 2 by a score of 124-114 to take a 2-0 series lead.

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- Doc Rivers and the Philadelphia 76ers have reached an agreement for him to become the franchise's next head coach.

- My breakdown of Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

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And Here. We. Are. after all of the uncertainty of there being a restart to the NBA, if the players were going to continue playing after the Bucks decided to not play and the NBA taking a few days off before resuming the season once again; it is time for the NBA Finals. The Lakers, owners of the Western Conference's No. 1 seed and seeking out an NBA-best 17th championship, will face the Miami Heat, a No. 5 seed on a Cinderella run to the Finals after several years out of contention. These playoffs couldn't be ending any better. It almost feels like March Madness. The Lakers may be entering the series as heavy favorites, but the Heat have been the lower seed in each series and won since the playoffs began. They won't back down against anyone.

This marks LeBron James’ 10th Finals appearance and first with the Lakers, who last played for the championship with Kobe Bryant in 2010. It is the Heat’s first Finals appearance since 2014, when LeBron James led them to the last of four straight title shots.

The Lakers won both regular-season meetings between the teams — 95-80 in early November and 113-110 in mid-December —neither were representative of this version of the Heat. Miami was still starting Kendrick Nunn and Meyers Leonard, neither of whom cracked the rotation in the conference finals. The Heat had also not acquired Crowder and Iguodala. Also, neither Herro nor Robinson were playing at the level they are now.

What we do know is that LeBron James & Anthony Davis completely outplayed Jimmy Butler & Bam Adebayo in their two regular season matchups. For Miami to have a chance in this series, this cannot be the case unless they get superhero like play from the likes of Dragic & Herro.

Matchups to watch:

What I will be watching:

Prediction: Lakers in 6 Games

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Heat beat Boston, 125-113. Miami wins series 4-2.

Miami found their guys, built their guys up, developed their guys, didn’t just add the top tier talent but the talent that fit right into what they do. Erik Spoelstra gets the most out of his players. Puts them in the best spots to succeed. Adapts to his teams strengths and weaknesses.

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