Finals Game 1
Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets will play in the NBA finals, and the Nuggets will be the favorite throughout the series as they are the number one seed and have currently the best player in the whole league Nikola Jokic. He has been playing at the highest level in the postseason and if the Nuggets win, he will most probably win the finals MVP too. It will be a very historic NBA final because if Miami Heat win, they will be the first eighth-seeded team to win the NBA title, and if the Nuggets win it will be their first-ever title and Jokic will cement his status as one of the greats in the history of the NBA. At the start of the series, free sports picks websites had Denver heavy favorites at about 4-1 odds.
Denver Nuggets
The first game was played and the Denver Nuggets came out on top as they won 93-104. It was expected that the Nuggets would lose their touch as they did not play a game for one and a half weeks, but Nikola Jokic showed how informed they are. Jokic, in his debut finals game, scored a triple-double, he had ten rebounds, fourteen assists and twenty-seven points. Jamal Murray also played well as he scored twenty-six points. The Nuggets will also have a home advantage and if the series goes to game seven, the Nuggets will be the favorite. Jokic is showing why he is a two-time NBA MVP.
Miami Heat
The reason for the Miami Heat’s loss was also that Jimmy Butler, their star player did not perform as he only managed to get thirteen points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Bam Adebayo kept the Heat in the game but in the end, the star power of the Nuggets was too much. Jimmy Butler and Co. need to step in the coming games to have a chance against this amazing Nuggets team. The Nuggets were on top throughout the game. Heats tried to come back in the last quarter as the score was 30-20 in favor of the Heats. The thing is Heat does not have a team, it is just mostly Jimmy Butler, the play always has to go through him. If he has an off game the whole team just looks bad. The dependence on Jimmy Butler is very much and it will most likely cost them. Butler will have to continue to perform and have the “playoff Jimmy” persona for them to have a chance against the Nuggets.
One thing that is on their side is whenever Miami has lost their first game in the finals, they have gone on to win the NBA title. The time they won the game they lost the title. Miami versus Nuggets promises to be a very exciting final, but for that Jimmy Butler will need to come back and perform like he did in the previous series. It’s also important to realize that although the Heat are down and out and only one game from elimination, that doesn’t mean it lights out. Sportsbook odds currently give the Miami Heat a 20-1 chance at winning the next three in a row.
