The Opening Tip

• Miami did something last night that's only happened four times in 40 years
• Shaq’s streak lives on, gloriously
• Lakers-Heat is a matchup of two completely different teams

NBA Finals Game 1, Wednesday night

1. The Lead: A fifth seed just made the NBA Finals

The Heat finished off the implosion-prone Boston Celtics last night to clinch their sixth NBA Finals trip, and their first in a COVID-sealed bubble in Lake Buena Vista, Fl.

It wasn’t surprising, per se, because they’ve been excellent all postseason. (They did get outscored overall in the Eastern Conference Finals, though.) Miami swept the higher-seeded Pacers, manhandled the one-seed Bucks, and hummed professionally through six erratic games against Boston.

What is surprising -- and also historically unusual -- is that Miami, which was on a 49-win 82-game pace during the regular season, is headed to the Finals as a fifth-seed.

That -- reaching the Finals as a non top-four seed -- doesn’t happen much in the NBA:

• The last team to make the Finals as a bottom four seed were the 1999 Knicks, who went 27-23 in a lockout year and lost to the Spurs in the Finals as the No. 8 seed. That was, by every measure, a fluke. 
• Before that, it was sixth-seeded Houston in 1995, who went 47-35 during the regular season but swept Orlando to win the NBA Finals. Even then, they were the defending champions with the best player in the NBA in Hakeem Olajuwon. (Michael Jordan spent most of that season playing baseball.)  
• Before that, it was Houston again in 1981, who reached the Finals as a sixth seed but lost to the Celtics in six games. The Rockets entered those playoffs with a losing record, at 40-42. 

So, the Heat are just the fourth team in 40 years to make the Finals as a seed lower than four. Would that have happened if they actually had to play a postseason road game? Probably not. But they’ve also so thoroughly outplayed their three opponents that it’s hard to call this a fluke.

2. LeBron’s Game 5 run sends the Lakers to the NBA Finals

Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals was close toward the end of the fourth quarter. Then LeBron went on a personal 10-0 run, capped by the 3-pointer above. With that, the Nuggets’ valiant run ended and the Lakers clinched a Finals appearance.

LeBron has now been in nine of the last 10 Finals. Here are the end results of his last 10 seasons: 

• 2011: Lost Finals
• 2012: Won Finals
• 2013: Won Finals
• 2014: Lost Finals
• 2015: Lost Finals
• 2016: Won Finals
• 2017: Lost Finals
• 2018: Lost Finals
• 2019: Missed playoffs
• 2020: Made Finals

3. Shaq’s age-defying streak lives on

When the Lakers beat the Nuggets in Game 5 on Saturday night to clinch their first NBA Finals appearance since 2010, Shaq’s streak was guaranteed for another year.

And now we can say it: Every Finals since 1984 has featured at least one player who has at any point been a teammate of Shaq’s.

With Miami now in, six players in the 2020 Finals have played with him: 

• Goran Dragic (2008-09, Phoenix)  
• LeBron (Cleveland, 2009-10) 
• Danny Green (Cleveland, 2009-10)
• Avery Bradley (2010-11, Boston)
• Rajon Rondo (2010-11, Boston)
• Jared Dudley (2008-09, Phoenix)

That’s 36 straight Finals. Shaq’s career went from 1992 to 2011. It is such a delightfully improbable stat.

4. The Finals is top-heavy greatness vs. steady-level goodness

Here’s a quick thought exercise: Who are the 10 best players in the NBA Finals this year?

No. 1 and 2 are painfully obvious; 3-10 might be made almost entirely of Heat players. Here’s a subjective but educated stab at it:

1. LeBron James, LAL
2. Anthony Davis, LAL
3. Jimmy Butler, MIA
4. Bam Adebayo, MIA
5. Goran Dragic, MIA
6. Tyler Herro, MIA
7. Duncan Robinson, MIA
8. Rajon Rondo, LAL
9. Andre Iguodala, MIA
10. Jae Crowder/Kentavious Caldwell-Pope/Alex Caruso

You might have Rondo a little higher up. You might have KCP or -- goodness forbid -- Caruso a little higher. But that’s not a bad list, made more accurate by the fact that Kyle Kuzma is nowhere near it.

The difference in team building can also be seen through playoffs per game averages. Here are the leaders among both teams: 

1. Anthony Davis, 28.8, LAL
2. LeBron James, 26.7, LAL
3. Goran Dragic, 20.9, MIA
4. Jimmy Butler, 20.7, MIA
5. Bam Adebayo, 18.5, MIA
6. Tyler Herro, 16.5, MIA 
7. Jae Crowder, 12.3, MIA
8. Duncan Robinson, 11.3, MIA
9. Kyle Kuzma, 10.5, LAL

5. By the Numbers

6 straight Finals

Andre Iguodala, who began his season on Memphis, is now heading to his sixth straight Finals appearance at the age of 36.

.255

After being a nearly guaranteed 3 against the Bucks, Jae Crowder shot only .255 from 3 on 47 attempts against the Celtics.
 

$68,566,185

The Celtics owe Kemba Walker and Gordon Hayward, their third and fifth best players, respectively, this postseason, a combined $68,566,185 next year. Hayward’s off the books after 2021. 

6.  Quick hits

• The first person with the last name Antetokounmpo to make the NBA Finals is Kostas, Giannis’ brother, who is on the Lakers and hasn’t played in a playoff game. 
• Look at this old picture of Erik Spoelstra. 
• This footage of the Nuggets returning home and this Nikola Jokić interview makes you realize how much their run to the WCF meant to them.
• Here’s Gordon Hayward nonchalantly blowing a wide open layup in an Eastern Conference Finals elimination game. He's fun, isn't he?

7.  Off the press

• Erik Spoelstra is the best coach in basketball [GQ]
• These Celtics could have beaten the Heat, but they lacked the killer instinct [The Boston Globe]