Tom Thibodeau did something no New York Knicks head coach hadn’t been able to do in 25 years. Make the Knicks relevant again.

In his fifth season, Thibodeau led New York to a top-three seed in the Eastern Conference. However, the playoff run ended in disappointment, as the Knicks fell to Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers in the conference finals.

Just as Thibs seemed poised to lead the Knicks back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, the rug was pulled from under him. In a major shift, the Knicks fired the defensive-minded Thibodeau and replaced him with Mike Brown, a coach known for favoring a faster tempo. Brown, a disciple of Steve Kerr’s pace-and-space methodology that powered the Golden State Warriors to four NBA championships in eight years, brings a new approach.

Brown takes over a Knicks squad led by reigning Clutch Player of the Year Jalen Brunson.

Brunson, who averaged 26.0 points and 7.3 assists per game last season, is the unquestioned leader of the Knicks and arguably the franchise’s best star player since Patrick Ewing. Brunson, along with Knicks teammates Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges, played college ball at Villanova.

In Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, the Knicks have one of the best guard-center combos in the league, and Brown will lean on both to help him establish a more diversified offensive attack.

Towns fit in seamlessly with the Knicks and earned a fifth All-Star selection. OG Anunoby, Bridges, and Hart formed a sturdy perimeter wall, locking down opposing wings and bringing toughness on both ends of the floor. The Knicks, with their core under contract for the next few years, are well-positioned to contend for a championship. The last time the Knicks won an NBA title, “The French Connection” won Best Picture at the Oscars. That was 54 years ago.

OneManFastBreak projects the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference.

1-New York Knicks — Devastating Achilles’ injuries to Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton open the door for the Knicks to climb into the top spot and become beast of the East. The addition of free agents Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele should bolster the Knicks bench.

2-Cleveland Cavaliers — The Cavs won 64 regular-season games a season ago but got bounced early in the postseason. The pressure is on All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell to help the Cavs rebound from last season’s disappointing finish.

3-Detroit Pistons — Cade Cunningham took his game to a new level under J.B. Bickerstaff. Motor Cade got a taste of the postseason last season, and another year under his belt will only increase his stock. Jaden Ivey returns to the lineup after missing 52 games due to a knee injury.

4-Milwaukee Bucks — Giannis Antetokounmpo is coming off a superb summer, leading his Greek national team to a bronze medal at EuroBasket. As long as the Greek Freak is healthy and happy, the Bucks will always be a threat.

5-Orlando Magic — The addition of shooting guard Desmond Bane should make life a little easier for Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero. Wagner is coming off a sensational summer after helping Germany win a gold medal at EuroBasket.

6-Atlanta Hawks — The Hawks opted not to offer point guard Trae Young a max extension. Trae will be highly motivated to show the Hawks that he’s worth the $229 million investment.

7-Miami Heat — Heat Culture took a hit last season, winning only 37 games and finishing 12th in the conference. Erik Spoelstra won’t let it happen again, and he’ll have a new spark plug in Norman Powell to fire up the offense.

8-Boston Celtics — Tatum’s Achilles’ tear drastically alters the Celtics’ plans for this season, but it doesn’t mean they are going to tank. Finals MVP Jaylen Brown is still on the roster, and expect expanded roles for Payton Pritchard and Derrick White.

Play-In teams: Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers

The small ball era had a good run. The Denver Nuggets — led by 6-foot-11, 285-pound center Nikola Jokic — officially expired the small ball era with a brand of old-school basketball principles that rely mostly on size and strength over pace and space.

The Nuggets plowed through the 2023 NBA playoffs, winning 16 of 20 games. Their 16-4 postseason mark is the best since the 2007 San Antonio Spurs. Denver put an exclamation point on its historic playoff run by winning the franchise’s first NBA title after overpowering and overwhelming the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.

“[The Nuggets] have what Golden State had. They’ve changed the game,” Fox Sports NBA analyst Ric Bucher said on FS1’s “The Herd.”

“With a point center in Jokic, now I expect teams are going to be looking to find that athletic 7-footers who might be able to match up with him to make the game difficult,” Bucher added, “or find some sort of wrinkle that is going to have an answer for Nikola Jokic.”

The Nuggets roll out a conventional starting five with Jamal Murray (point guard), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (shooting guard), Michael Porter Jr. (small forward), Aaron Gordon (power forward), and Jokic (center). They all have ideal size for their respective positions. Murray is a 6-4 point guard who can score at all three levels and post-up smaller guards. Caldwell-Pope is a 6-5 guard with elite defensive talent as a 3-and-D wing. Porter Jr. is a lengthy 6-10 shooting forward who can provide instant offense. Gordon is an athletic 6-8 forward who started his career in Orlando as a spectacular slam dunker, but became a rugged player willing to do all the dirty work and take on difficult defensive assignments.

And then there is Jokic.

The big man from Sombor, Serbia, is a throwback center with a touch of modern. He takes high percentage shots. He sets solid screens. He rebounds the ball. He can hit 3-pointers, but it’s more a luxury than a necessity. What makes Jokic special is his ability to be playmaker as the 5-man. The Nuggets run their offense through Jokic, and he’s very comfortable being the quarterback.

Having the center be the focal point is certainly nostalgic. It goes against the new-school way where threes are better than twos. Analytics shifted the attack from inside-out to outside-in.

The Nuggets don’t subscribe to this approach. They are more of a conventional team that would have been a good fit in the 1980s and ’90s.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone — whose father Brendan won two championships as a member of Chuck Daly’s staff with the Detroit Pistons — leans heavily on his starting five. He usually finishes games with his core five guys, an anomaly in today’s game as most coaches prefer going small instead of staying big. The Heat deployed this small-ball, perimeter-oriented philosophy and rode it to an improbable postseason run, becoming the second No. 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals. The Heat advanced through each round by wearing down opponents with 3-point shooting, near-flawless execution in the fourth quarter, and a perplexing zone defense.

It almost work until Miami ran into Denver in The Finals.

Miami’s formula worked against Eastern Conference teams. It wasn’t as effective against the bigger Nuggets, whose size, strength, and skill — three traits that define their all-world center Jokic — were too much to overcome. Jokic and Co. found the mismatches and punished the mismatches throughout the series.

Jokic enjoyed a sensational NBA Finals debut, averaging nearly a triple-double (30.2 points, 14 rebounds, 7.2 assists) en route to winning Finals MVP. He was too big and too skilled for his counterpart Bam Adebayo. Bam had a solid series (22.3 points, 12.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists) but his numbers were pedestrian compared to Jokic. Adebayo’s effort would have been good enough against the majority of NBA centers. But Jokic is no ordinary center.

Bam is an undersized center (listed at 6-9, 255) best suited as a big forward. In boxing terms, Bam would be a light heavyweight. He was simply no match for a super heavyweight like The Joker.

Denver’s core group is homegrown. The Nuggets drafted Murray in the first round in 2016. Two years later, they drafted Porter Jr. Team executive Calvin Booth, who took over as general manager in 2020, made two important acquisitions: Gordon in 2021 and Caldwell-Pope in 2022.

Caldwell-Pope gave the Nuggets some much-needed perimeter defense with championship pedigree (he won with the Lakers in 2020), while Gordon provided athleticism and versatility on both ends. He has embraced a supporting role after being the featured attraction in Orlando.

“He’s been put into the perfect role as the third guy [behind Jokic and Murray],” said Bucher, who compares Gordon’s arc to Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins, the No. 1 overall pick in 2014, struggled to carry the burden of being the face of the Minnesota Timberwolves, but thrived as the third or fourth wheel with the Golden State Warriors.

Gordon entered the league with a ton of hype and a ton of expectations as the No. 4 overall pick by the Magic in the 2014 draft, the same year Jokic was drafted.

Jokic’s NBA odyssey was an unlikely one. He was drafted in the second round. Forty players were taken ahead of him. He looked overweight and out of shape when he first played in the Las Vegas summer league.

“I always think about this and laugh because that first Summer League in Vegas, 300 pounds, out of shape — he’s a nice player,” Malone said of Jokic, whose draft scouting report read something like this: Slow-footed, below-average athlete; doesn’t get much lift off the floor; doesn’t have the speed or burst to drive past opponents or stay in front of them laterally on defense.

No one ever could have seen Jokic winning MVPs and becoming the most dominant big man in basketball since Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan.

“That speaks to his dedication to his craft, getting in great shape and understanding that for him to fulfill his potential, he had to work harder, and he’s done that,” said Malone, who quickly realized he had something special in Jokic during his rookie year in the 2015-16 season.

“There was a game in his rookie season at San Antonio. He put up a crazy stat line,” Malone recalled. “[He put up] 25 or 26 points, 12 or 13 rebounds, six or seven assists against a guy like Tim Duncan. That was for me when the light bulb went off and saying, ‘Wow.’ What he just did, who he did it against, on the road against this team, coached by [Gregg Popovich]. This kid has a chance to be a special player.”

Malone had one more puzzle to figure out. Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic were both on the roster and room wasn’t big enough to house them. Malone had to chose one.

“I was bringing Nikola off the bench,” Malone recalled. “After we lost a game at Dallas, I remember having the conversation [and said to myself] ‘What am I doing?’ This kid was All-Rookie as a center. I started him the next game, probably around December 12th Year 2, and that’s when our team took off, he became the focal point of everything we did. And we realized we had a player we can build an offense and a team and an organization around.”

Malone made the right call.

With Jokic as their centerpiece, the Nuggets are now sitting on the Iron Throne ruling the basketball world. It took seven years, but it was worth the wait. Denver’s loyal fans waited almost five decades to celebrate a championship. Thanks to a plus-size starting lineup spearheaded by an uber talented big man rewriting the NBA record book, the Mile High City finally got its championship banner.

Jamal Murray had an opportunity to tie the score as time expired in Game 2 of the 2023 NBA Finals, but his step-back 3-pointer against Jimmy Butler bounced off the rim.

It was a shot Murray has made on multiple occasions. When he missed, he was more surprised than than disappointed. It shows the level of confidence Murray has in his ability to close games. He felt good about the shot. He didn’t feel good about his lack of intensity throughout the game. “I didn’t play terrible,” he said. “I felt like I could have done a lot more.”

Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone was around Murray for the next two days leading up to the pivotal Game 3 in Miami. He could tell his 26-year-old point guard was itching to redeem himself and was ready for a big bounce-back game.

“I could tell, speaking to him and being around him the last 48 hours, that he was putting a lot of Game 2 on him,” Malone said. “It wasn’t just him. It was me and everyone of our players. It was collective. But that’s what champions do. That’s what warriors do. They battled back. I just felt his presence all game long [in Game 3]. Forget the stats for a second. I felt Jamal Murray’s presence, his energy. He was here. He was in the moment.”

In a game the Nuggets sorely needed to regain home-court advantage in the NBA Finals, Murray and Nikola Jokic authored what Malone called their “greatest performance” as a duo in their seven years together. Jokic and Murray became the first teammates to pull off a 30-10-10 triple-double game in NBA history. Jokic finished with 32 points, 21 rebounds, 10 assists. Not to be outdone, Murray had 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists.

“The whole playoffs he was playing phenomenal. He’s a really good leader out there. We’re just following him,” Jokic said of Murray, who might be the best player in the 2023 postseason if not for the 6-11, 280-pound monster he shares a locker room with.

Murray and Jokic have been spectacular. Both are at the peak of their powers and looking more and more like the best 1-2 punch in basketball. The rest of the NBA should be worried because the Murray-Jokic partnership could have a long, dominant run as long as they can stay healthy.

“It’s a great duo. Their games complement each other,” Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Both those guys are elite-level talent.”

Jokic is Denver’s undisputed best player. He’s arguably the best basketball player in the world. If Jokic is the engine of Denver’s Formula 1-type racing machine, then Murray is the fuel that ignites the Denver machine.

“Murray is an electric playoff performer,” Spoelstra said. “Murray will draw second and third defenders. You have to pick him up beyond the 3-point line. And he’s ignitable.”

Murray set the tone early for Game 3 as he took on the Butler defensive challenge and brought the intensity from the tip. He scored 20 of his game-high 34 points in the first half. He shot 12-for-22 from the field, he was 3-for-6 from 3-point range, and 7-for-8 from the line.

The type of energy and aggression Murray brought to the table against the Heat represented what he’d been consistently doing the entire postseason. He was sensational during the Nuggets sweep of the L.A. Lakers in the Western Conference finals.

Jokic was the consistent jab that kept the Lakers at bay. Murray was the right-hand cross that knocked LeBron James and Co. out of the playoffs. Murray’s performances in games 2 and 3 against L.A. were his signature moments. He scored 23 of his game-high 37 points in the fourth quarter of Game 2 to give the Nuggets a 2-0 lead in the series. In Game 3, he dropped another 37-point outing on the road to give the Nuggets a commanding 3-0 series lead.

Murray is one of the game’s fourth-quarter performers. His ability to come through in clutch situations was one of the primary reasons why the Nuggets reached the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.

About the only time Murray’s confidence wavered slightly was during the beginning of his rehabilitation after tearing his ACL in April of 2021. Murray had some doubts about regaining the form he flashed in the bubble season of 2020.

“I remember being in the bus with him, going to the airport after he did the injury [against] Golden State the next day and he had tears in his eyes, and that was the message. ‘Hey man, you’re gonna come back from this. And not only are you going to come back, you’re going to be better,'” said Malone. “In that moment, it’s really hard to believe that. His first thought was, ‘Are you guys gonna trade me? I’m damaged goods, you guys are gonna trade me now.’ “

Malone responded with, “I hugged him and said, ‘Hell no, you’re ours. We love you, we’re going to help you get back, and you’re going to be a better player for it.”

Malone was right. Murray not only fully recovered but he became a better player since the ACL injury. The 2023 playoffs is a reminder of the player the Nuggets selected with the seventh overall pick in the 2016 draft out of Kentucky. The kid from Kitchener, Ontario (Canada), has continued to find ways to improve and show out on the biggest stage in the world.

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr made some waves when he suggested that Murray is the focal point of the Nuggets’ attack. Seems silly to think that a guard — who has never been named to a single All-Star game or make All-NBA — be the focal point of a team that employs two-time MVP and All-NBA center Nikola Jokic.

But here was Kerr, without hesitation, circling Murray as the top target on the white board.

“I can see [the Heat] in their coaching meeting saying, ‘Murray is the head of the snake, not Jokic,'” Kerr said during Draymond Green’s podcast.

The Nuggets are not just a one-man show. They are a complete team with a scary two-headed monster leading the attack.

Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks were shocked. The betting favorites to win the 2023 NBA title went home in the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs, suffering through a painful 4-1 series loss to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat.

Antetokounmpo, the two-time NBA MVP and 2021 NBA champion, was forced to answer difficult questions after the Bucks became the sixth No. 1 seed to get bounced in the first round. One reporter asked Giannis if he considered the Bucks’ season a failure. The Greek Freak paused for a few seconds before delivering an impassioned response.

“It’s not a failure,” he said. “It’s steps towards success. There’s always steps to it. Michael Jordan played 15 years. He won six championships. The other nine years, he was a failure? (No.) So why do you ask me that question? It’s the wrong question.

“There’s no failure in sports. There’s good days, bad days. Some days you’re able to be successful. Some days you’re not. Some days it’s your turn. Some days it’s not your turn. And that’s what sports is about. You don’t always win. Some other people are going to win. And this year, somebody else is going to win. Simple as that.

“We’re going to come back next year, try to be better, try to build good habits, try to play better. Not have a 10-day stretch of playing bad basketball. And hopefully we can win a championship. So, for 50 years, from 1971 until we won in 2021, that we didn’t win a championship, it was 50 years of failure? No, it was not. It was steps to it. And we were able to win one. Hopefully we can win another one.”

By the end of the postgame press conference, Giannis gave a brutal but honest assessment of the Bucks’ stunning early exit. “They were playing to beat us and we were playing to win a championship”, Antetokounmpo said. “We were a little bit ahead of ourselves, to be honest.”

The rare admission from Giannis was refreshing and alarming. How can the Bucks — a team loaded with veterans with championship pedigree and armed with an MVP still in his prime — could look past the Heat in the first round? Did they think they could just jog past the Heat and expect them to advance? Did they think they had a free pass to the conference finals?

All those questions seem like valid explanations on why Milwaukee is out of the playoffs. But the largest share of the blame goes to head coach Mike Budenholzer.

Budenholzer put on a clinic on what not to do as a coach. Budenholzer treated the Heat series like the regular season. He made incremental adjustments and left his players on an island. Budenholzer was severely outcoached by Miami’s Erik Spoelstra. He also made shockingly terrible coaching decisions in the most crucial moments.

Antetokounmpo wished he could have spent more time guarding Heat superstar Jimmy Butler, but “out of respect” to Budenholzer, he played good soldier and accepted whatever the game plan was which was have Jrue Holiday stick with Butler and play drop coverage behind Holiday. “You gotta let the coach make that adjustment,” Antetokounmpo told reporters. “We have our best defender on [Butler]. There are conversations with Jrue [Holiday]. Whenever he gets tired, I can take him, but he’s so competitive. He plays so hard. He wants to take the challenge.”

Butler had a superb series, averaging 37.6 points in the five-game series and finishing with a game-high 42 points in Game 5. He had 56 points in a pivotal Game 4. Antetokounmpo did his best to keep the Bucks in the fight. He finished with 38 points and 20 rebounds in Game 5, but was an abysmal 10-for-23 from the free throw line.

The Bucks’ problems started in Game 1 when Antetokounmpo hurt his back after a hard fall. The Heat went on to steal Game 1 and Giannis missed the next two games due to the injury. The Bucks’ overly cautious approach to Giannis’ injury cost them both games in Miami, and the series was 3-1 in favor of Heat heading back to Milwaukee.

Facing elimination at home in Game 5, the Bucks blew a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter and fell apart in overtime in a 128-126 loss. Milwaukee was held to only 16 points in the fourth and looked out of sorts. Budenholzer could have helped his team but settling them down, but he was just as shaky as his squad.

Budenholzer made three egregious mistakes down the stretch. With the Bucks clinging to a two-point lead with 2.1 seconds remaining in regulation, Budenholzer took out 7-foot center Brook Lopez — a candidate for NBA defensive player of the year — and decided to “match” the Heat’s small lineup. Guard Pat Connaughton ended up under the basket to contest the alley-oop play to Heat superstar Jimmy Butler, who made an incredible circus shot to tie the game at 118.

The second major Budenholzer flub was not calling timeout after Butler’s layup. The clock stopped at 0.5 when Jrue Holiday inbounded the ball. The Bucks had a timeout left, but Coach Bud decided to pocket it. Maybe he was saving it for the next game.

Then, the final nail on the Bucks’ coffin, thanks to Coach Bud, came on the final possession in overtime. Down by two with under 10 seconds left, Giannis grabbed a missed free throw and dribbled up the court. He ran into Butler and was forced to give the ball up to Khris Middleton, who tried to make a move to the paint but was cutoff. Middleton flipped a pass to Grayson Allen, who just checked into the game and looked ice cold. Allen panicked as he passed up a 3-point shot and drove to the basket as time expired. The Bucks were able to get a shot up on the most important possession of the season.

Milwaukee had a timeout remaining but Budenholzer chose to pocket it yet again. He just watched his team implode. These are mistakes you make at the grade school level, high school level, AAU level. But not in the NBA. Budenholzer has been in the NBA since 1996. He worked as assistant for Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs, he was head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, and now the Bucks. He has been named NBA coach of the year twice. There are no excuses for his coaching blunders in the 2023 playoffs.

At the end of the day, if a game is a blowout it’s on the players. If a game is close, it’s on the head coach. Budenholzer failed his team and the Bucks must take a hard look if Coach Bud is the right guy for the job.

“Mike Budenholzer’s status as Bucks head coach is very much shaky, there are questions across the organization,” NBA insider Shams Charania reported. Budenholzer has two years and $16 million left on his contract.

Few coaches can match Budenholzer’s 69.3% regular-season winning percentage (271-120) over the last five seasons. The Bucks had the best record in the NBA in three of them. But in each of those seasons they didn’t reach the NBA Finals, and three times they exited before the conference finals.

“There’s some losses for which there’s just no going back,” said ESPN insider Zach Lowe on his podcast. “You cannot [bring] back the same team.”

Lowe said league insiders are extremely skeptical that Budenholzer can return as head coach of the Bucks after this collapse.

LeBron James knocked off Jimmy Butler and the Heat in the 2020 NBA Finals. (Getty Images)

NBA Hall of Famer and current NBA TV analyst Isiah Thomas offered the simplest and candid commentary on the 2020 NBA Finals matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat.

The NBA playoffs are all about adjustments. Teams that can make the proper corrections during the course of a series usually comes out on top. But there’s only so much a coaching staff can do in terms of schematic tweaks. Even if the effort is there and the execution is nearly flawless, the team with the best talent eventually comes out on top.

The Finals inside the coronavirus-free bubble at the Walt Disney World in Orlando offered a fascinating chess match, pitting the Los Angeles Lakers’ two battle-tested playmakers in LeBron James and Rajon Rondo — who have appeared in more than 300 playoff games combined and have seen any imaginable defense during their storied careers — against the defensive-minded and mentally tough Miami Heat squad led by two-way players Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. Styles create great matchups. In this matchup, the bigger and stronger Lakers presented the undersized Heat a huge challenge. Not only do the Lakers possess great size, but they were faster, more athletic and more experienced. It’s like competing against Thor in the Olympic hammer throw.

It was a daunting task for the underdog Heat, and it became nearly impossible after veteran guard Goran Dragic (foot) and Adebayo (neck) both suffered significant injuries that limited their impact in the series and disrupted the Heat’s regular rotation.

The championship series played out just as most of us expected. The Lakers jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the series thanks to the dominance of Anthony Davis and LeBron James. The Heat avoided getting swept thanks to a couple of historic triple-double games from Butler. But once the magic dust from Mickey’s wand disappeared, the Lakers’ size, length, depth and superior talent wore down the undermanned and overmatched Heat. The Lakers won each round in five games, knocking off All-Stars Damian Lillard, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic in the West before taking down two-time championship coach Erik Spoelstra in The Finals.

Spoelstra threw everything at the top-seeded Lakers, including the kitchen sink. But it wasn’t enough to derail LeBron from winning his fourth NBA title, Davis’ first and the 17th overall championship for the Lakers franchise, matching the Boston Celtics’ all-time record.

Here are a couple of observations from the NBA Finals.

Sizing up the Heat zone

L.A. has the best frontcourt in the league. They entered every postseason series with a significant size advantage and they used that edge to near perfection, using their great length to create mismatches on both ends of the floor. In an era when teams prefer to go small rather than go big, the Lakers are an anomaly. They are insanely long with a plethora of big men to deploy and a pair of big guards in Danny Green (6-6) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (6-5) who can smother the opposing team’s primary ball handlers. Dwight Howard (6-11) and JaVale McGee (6-0) rotate at center, but when head coach Frank Vogel decides to go “small” he inserts 6-8 Markief Morris at power forward, slides Davis to center, and plays LeBron at small forward. Vogel’s finishing lineup almost always includes their best defenders: Rondo, Caldwell-Pope, Alex Caruso, LeBron and Davis. Vogel also has the option of throwing in Green and Kyle Kuzma, depending on the matchups.

Spoelstra and his coaching staff were able to confound the Celtics with an inverted 2-3 zone defense in the Eastern Conference finals. The uniqueness about the Heat zone was Spo flipped it. The forwards were at the top and the guards were on the baseline with Adebayo patrolling the middle. It was highly effected against a center-less Celtics squad, but it was sliced up by the Lakers like a Papa John’s pizza. LeBron or Davis took turns flashing to the middle above the free throw line, which is what you should do against a zone. With LeBron or Davis collapsing the heart of the zone, it opened up the baseline for dunks and layups and freed up shooters on the wings and corners. When Howard was paired with Davis, he would roam the baseline for easy lobs.

Spoelstra threw a new wrinkle after the second game with a hybrid 1-2-2 zone and a little bit of a box-and-one whenever Davis was on the court. The clever plan worked for at least one game as the Heat were able to steal a game and make the executives at ABC very happy because it prevented an embarrassing sweep. But Spo and Heat could only fool the Lakers once. After LeBron and the Lakers coaching staff watched the film, they knew what to fix and cleaned up the sloppy mistakes.

Vogel utilized a smaller lineup in the next game, pairing Morris with Davis and LeBron up front. The Lakers also made more 3-point shots, which will force any team out of a zone defense. Caldwell-Pope, Green and Kuzma made seven of the team’s 14 3-pointers in Game 4, propelling the Lakers to a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Putting it all on the line

Let’s flash back to the 2006 NBA Finals. The Heat were down 2-0 and on the brink of getting wiped off the floor by the Dallas Mavericks. Enter Dwyane Wade. The then young superstar took over the series by forcefully attacking the basket and forcing the referees to make tough calls (some were not so tough). Wade lived at the free throw line throughout the series and the Heat eventually won in six games and Wade was named Finals MVP.

Flash forward to 2020. Jimmy Butler put his Wade cape on and lived at the free throw line in games 2 and 3. The Heat as a team made 31 of 34 free throws in Game 2, with Jimmy Buckets leading the way by converting 11 of 12 from the line. Butler revved it up in Game 3 as he went 12-for-14 from the line, seeking and searching for contact each time he drove to the basket.

You can paint it however you like. Whether you believe in conspiracy theories or not, you cannot deny the simple fact that referees play a big part in deciding games especially in the playoffs. It has been that way for ages. Butler and the Heat benefitted from several 50-50 calls that allowed the games to be close.

Best performance by a duo

There were two big reasons why the Lakers were able to dismantle the Heat: LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The Finals showed us what happens when two second-team All-NBA caliber players like Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo take on two first-team All-NBAers in LeBron and AD. As good as Butler was in the series, LeBron was better. And Bam may be an up-and-coming superstar, he is still not in Davis’ league. It boils down to this. The Heat have very good players, but the Lakers have two all-time great players. That’s the difference.

We haven’t seen a Lakers duo dominate The Finals like this since Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Davis’ 34-point output in Game 1 was the third-best opening act in The Finals since Shaq’s 43-point outburst against the Indiana Pacers in the 2000 Finals. Then, in the pivotal Game 4, Davis showcased why he was a first-team All-NBA defensive player. He was credited with four blocks, but altered at least a dozen shots. AD also took on the challenge of guarding Butler one-on-one, making it extremely difficult for the Heat forward to get to his favorite spots.

“The guy can do everything defensively,” LeBron said. “That’s why he’s the defensive player of the year.”

With AD taking the Butler assignment on defense, LeBron was able to save his legs on offense. After experiencing a hiccup against Butler in Game 3, getting thoroughly outplayed for the first time in his illustrious career and hearing about it from the media pundits for 24 hours in between games, LeBron rebounded nicely the rest of the series and summoned enough energy in his 35-year-old body to piece together another masterful MVP performance in The Finals.

In a league full of dynamic duos, the L.A. Lakers’ 1-2 punch of King James and The Brow delivered a memorable knockout performance to cap off the most difficult postseason run amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Kawhi Leonard’s Raptors and Kyrie Irving’s Celtics will compete for top spot in the East. (AP)

When LeBron James left The Land and took his talents to Hollywood to play with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Eastern Conference finds itself in virgin territory. Teams from the East are finally free from the chokehold King James has put on the conference the last eight years.

The floodgates are wide open and the team is breathing the biggest sigh of relief has to be the Toronto Raptors. The Raps have had their hearts broken by LeBron in each of the last three postseasons. And last season was arguably the most painful of them all as LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers ended the Raptors’ historic season – a year in which they owned the East’s best record at 59-23 – with an embarrassing 4-0 sweep.

Now that The King has moved West, there will be a new king of the East and the West just got even tougher – unless you’re the Golden State Warriors.

OneManFastBreak.net predicts the eight playoff teams in the East for the 2018-19 season.

Eastern Conference

1-Toronto Raptors – General manager Masai Ujiri made a couple of big moves this offseason. First, he fired the reigning Coach of Year Dwane Casey and elevated assistant Nick Nurse to head coach. The second big move Ujiri made was trading All-Star DeMar DeRozan to the San Antonio Spurs for All-Star forward and former NBA Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard. The move was definitely an upgrade as Leonard brings toughest to a Raptors team that at times plays a bit soft. The Kawhi addition should only make a 59-win team only better. The Raptors could end up with the best regular-season record, but it doesn’t mean they will represent the East in the NBA Finals because the team right below might be more battle tested. Prediction: 60-22

2-Boston Celtics – Speaking of that battle-tested team …. Brad Stevens showed why he’s the best coach in the NBA by taking a patchwork Celtics roster to the conference finals and got within one win of reaching the NBA Finals despite losing Gordon Hayward minutes into the season and having Kyrie Irving for only 60 games. Stevens will have his roster intact for this season, with another year under the belts of young studs Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Boston has one of the best benches in the league, a scrappy unit that includes Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart, Aron Baynes, and Marcus Morris. Prediction: 58-24

3-Philadelphia 76ers – The Sixers will go as far as Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid will take them. The duo got the young Sixers to the conference semifinals before getting schooled by the Celtics. Embiid is predicting an MVP season, while Simmons looks to build off his Rookie of the Year season. The big question for Philly is solving the Markelle Fultz puzzle. His well-chronicled shooting woes aside, the 2017 No. 1 overall pick seems like a bad fit in Philly. He is struggling to find his shot within the offense and his lack of outside shooting restricts what the Sixers can do when he’s on the court with Simmons and Embiid. Prediction: 55-27

4-Milwaukee Bucks – New head coach Mike Budenholzer’s first order of business is to find second and third option to take some pressure off his superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who made second team All-NBA last year. If the Bucks can get more production from Eric Bledsoe and Khris Middleton, the Bucks could be in the hunt for one of the top four spots in the conference. Prediction: 49-33

5-Indiana Pacers – The Pacers grew a ton after their epic seven-game playoff series against LeBron’s Cavs. Victor Olapido is an emerging star and coach Nate McMillan has some nice supporting pieces to work with in Myles Turner, Bojan Bogdanovic, Darren Collison and Domantas Sabonis. The acquisition of Tyreke Evans didn’t make headlines offseason, but it’s a subtle but smart move that could pay off in the long run. Prediction: 48-34

6-Detroit Pistons – A full training camp and preseason should help Blake Griffin get more comfortable in Detroit. If Griffin can return to his all-star form, he and center Andre Drummond form arguably the best center-power forward tandem in the East. Dwane Casey takes over a squad that underachieved under Stan Van Gundy. Van Gundy’s heavy handed approach didn’t work, so the Pistons are hoping Casey can connect better with players, especially Griffin and Reggie Jackson. Prediction: 46-36

7-Miami Heat – The Heat are good enough to make the playoffs, but not enough to make a major dent in the East. They have a borderline star in Goran Dragic, but he’s not good enough to carry the team on his back. For the Heat to be elite, center Hassan Whiteside has to step up and be the dominant force he was pegged to be when the team signed him to a $98 million deal. Prediction: 42-40

8-Charlotte Hornets – This is a big year for point guard Kemba Walker. The Hornets have not locked him up to a long-term deal, waiting to see if he’s worth the money. Walker will be motivated to show Michael Jordan and the Hornets brass that he is a franchise player and should get a max deal. Prediction: 41-41

Last two teams out: Washington Wizards, New Jersey Nets.

Pressure falls on Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh after LeBron James left Miami for Cleveland. (GETTY IMAGES)

The decision 2.0 was widely anticipated this summer and LeBron James decided to go home to Cleveland.

Miami Heat president Pat Riley wasted no time adding players, he was signing players in an effort to convince James to stay after they lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.

Josh McRoberts was added before James left and while he is certainly no superstar, he is a serviceable role player who can start at power forward, allowing Bosh to play center. Last season, he averaged 8.3 points per game, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.3 assists for the Charlotte Bobcats who made the playoffs. McRoberts wasn’t the sole reason, but he was part of the reason with his ability to pass to the open man and step outside and hit the outside shot (36% on 3-pointers, and 47.1% in four postseason games). Signing McRoberts means Udonis Haslem will be a backup and given his age, that’s not a bad thing. At 34, Haslem is best suited to playing no more than 18 minutes per game.

They also brought in Luol Deng and while he’s no LeBron, he’s certainly not a bad replacement at all. He’s a solid defender and a capable offensive player who can score enough (15-16 points) to be a nice third option behind Bosh and Wade. He struggled in Cleveland last season after the Bulls traded him there, but he’s still just 29 and should be able to bounce back strong with a better supporting cast than he had with the Cavs. Danny Granger was brought in to add depth and back up Deng. At 31 and having battled injuries the last several seasons, Granger may be just a shadow of the player he used to be — 2011-12 was the last time he showed much, playing in 62 games and averaging 18.7 points. Bringing him off the bench is the best possible situation for him.

If either one of them experience injuries and that’s a definite possibility given their recent history, second round draft pick (50th overall) James Ennis (Long Beach State) will get an opportunity to play. He showed some ability in preseason, scoring 17 points twice in their first six games in limited minutes.

So, now it’s clearly on Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade’s shoulders to carry the burden of a LeBron-less Heat team. Bosh was the main offensive option when he was in Toronto and the Heat will look to him to once again be the man. Bosh, 30, was given a huge contract to stay in South Beach and now expectations will be even bigger after the deal he signed.

In his last season in Toronto, he averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds. It was all the way back in 2009-10, but what is undeniable is Bosh is a better offensive player now than he was back then. He has improved his outside shooting (he made 33.9% of his 3-pointers last season) and while he probably won’t come close to 24 points, he should be able to average 20 points and 8 rebounds. His rebounds should increase (career-low 6.6 last season) without James around to help clean the backboard. Chris Andersen was brought back to be a reserve and provide about 14-15 minutes of energy off the bench to keep Bosh rested. Justin Hamilton played in just eight games last season with the Heat and Bobcats and is a long-term project, if he makes the final cuts.

Wade will be the second option on offense and with James gone, he may also take over more of the ball-handling duties, just like he had before James came to Miami. Wade averaged 6.5 assists the season before James arrived and his assist numbers should go back up. The question is, can Wade stay healthy?

And it’s a fair question since he’s averaged just 54 games over the last three seasons. IF healthy, Wade should be back close to the old Wade, say maybe 18 points, 6 assists and 4-5 rebounds. Shannon Brown had a lost season playing in just 29 games with the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs, but he gives the Heat a veteran backup for Wade.

Mario Chalmers returns and will start, but his tenure will be challenged by rookie Shabazz Napier and Norris Cole. Cole has teased Miami for three seasons, but Chalmers struggled in the playoffs last season and Cole may be finally ready to take his job. Napier is the Johnny-come-lately who will try and show he can make the jump from college to the pros.

Outlook

The Heat clearly won’t be the same team they were with Lebron, but they aren’t exactly devoid of talent either. Losing the best player on the planet won’t send this team into a tailspin, I think they’ll win about 45-48 games and be a top 5 team in the East. It’s on Bosh and Wade to step up and lead the way. And we’ll see what head coach Erik Spoelstra has learned from Riles.

Darren Jacks is a contributing writer for OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @djroxalot.

Alonzo Mourning was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. (GETTY IMAGES)

Before Dwyane Wade became the unofficial mayor of South Beach, the face of the Miami Heat franchise was Alonzo Mourning.

You can’t write the history of the Heat without mentioning the man who embodied everything team president Pat Riley preaches.

“When you talk about Alonzo … what it comes down to is he’s the absolute, ultimate warrior,” Riley said about the 6-10 center who was recently inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. He joined Mitch Richmond, Bob Leonard, Nat Clifton, Sarunas Marciulionis, Guy Rodgers, Nolan Richardson, Gary Williams and former NBA commissioner David Stern in the class of 2014.

“Nobody I’ve been around has more blood and sweat equity in this game than this man, Alonzo,” Riley said. “He gave everything he had to the game, but, as a competitor, never gave an inch.”

Riley and Mourning are connected at the hip. They are similar in a lot of ways. They’re both very driven, almost maniacal to a point, and will stretch themselves to the absolutely limit to achieve their goal.

When Riley left New York for Miami in 1995, he needed an anchor. Riley brought Mourning with him to Miami and inked him to a $100 million contract. Riley built his squad around his then 25-year-old big man armed with WWE-like biceps and a tenacious approach only a drill sergeant could love.

Zo was coming off three very productive years with the Charlotte Hornets, but he had to share the spotlight with Larry Johnson. In Miami, Zo was the undisputed superstar in a city starving for a winner. Behind Mourning’s effort and energy, the Heat became one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. Miami reached the conference finals in 1997, losing to Michael Jordan’s Bulls, but never went beyond that. Most of Zo’s playoff runs ended in misery, mostly at the hands of the New York Knicks.

Mourning’s first stint with the Heat abruptly ended in 2000 when he was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease. He returned to action in 2003-04 season with the New Jersey Nets but he was never the same player.

After briefly contemplating retirement, the NBA’s two-time defensive player of the year returned to the Heat in 2005 to join forces with Wade and his old nemesis Shaquille O’Neal. Mourning accepted a reduced role because he knew Wade and Shaq can get him that elusive championship ring.

His time finally came in the following season when the Heat defeated the Dallas Mavericks in six games. In the deciding Game 6, Mourning managed to reach back into his depleted tank and found the old Zo. He had six blocks in the game and had one monster dunk that fired up the troops.

Mourning was a self-made player. He often went up against bigger centers in the league, but no one could outworked him. His legacy was more about effort and energy, and statistics were always secondary to winning.

If you asked Riley if he could carve out the perfect Miami Heat player, he would look like Alonzo Mourning.

LeBron James came up short in his quest for a three-peat. (GETTY IMAGES)

Before Cleveland begins throwing a victory parade in honor of his royal highness, King James, there is still that 5-10 percent chance he could change his mind.

But if Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops.com is 100 percent right on his 90 percent reporting that LeBron James will be returning to Cleveland to play for the Cavaliers, then the Cavaliers just won the lottery for a fourth time (LeBron in 2003, once with Kyrie Irving in 2011, and this year with Andrew Wiggins and LeBron again).

The four-time NBA MVP hinted he wanted to to stay with the Heat, but returning to the Cavaliers has always been on his mind since he left in 2010. The much maligned Decision 2010 is a part of his legacy that he’d like to correct, and going back to the Cavaliers will definitely wipe the slate clean.

This is not the summer of 2010. LeBron is at a different place now in his life. He’s married. He’s got kids. He’s got two championship rings. Life is good for King James.

”I just want to win. That’s all that matters to me,” James said after emerging from the final Miami Heat team meeting.

”I feel more at ease this time,” James said, adding that ”2010, it was out of control. It was the craziest summer I’ve ever been a part of. … I’m definitely in a better place right now even though in 2010 I got put out in the postseason earlier than I expected or didn’t accomplish what I wanted to, and I have kind of the same feeling now.”

Ohio is home to LeBron, and it sounds like, feels like, looks like he is ready to come home.

Sheridan’s story was posted on July 9 and it got more than 10,000 retweets and more than 2,300 favorites. The post read: LeBron James is returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers, a source tells Sheridanhoops.com. @kingjames #LeBronToClev

Immediately, Cleveland media and fans went bonkers.

What added fuel to fire was the move made by the Cavaliers. They traded point guard Jarrett Jack and got nearly nothing in return, clearing serious cap space.

Outside of The Decision in 2010, James has made sound decisions when it comes to his career on and off the court. He inked huge commercial deals with Samsung, Beats, Nike, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. He ranks No. 2 on Forbes’ list of highest-earning athletes-entertainers behind only Beyonce. Money won’t be the driving force behind this latest decision for LeBron.

The only thing that matters to LeBron is winning, and the road to the NBA Finals is much easier in the Eastern Conference than the Western Conference. If there is a team that can pull LeBron away from Miami, it’s Cleveland.

Since signing with the Heat, LeBron’s seasons have ended in the NBA Finals. Only Bill Russell’s Celtics, Magic Johnson’s Lakers and Larry Bird’s Celtics have made four straight trips to The Finals. Michael Jordan never did that.

This season, the Spurs were the better team. The Heat simply reached its maximum level and couldn’t shift to fifth gear when Erik Spoelstra stepped on the gas pedal.

No team and no player have logged more minutes in the past four seasons than LeBron and Co. But no team and no player have enjoyed more success than LeBron and Co. in the last four seasons.

But a declining Wade and an aging roster has made LeBron rethink his Miami status. He can no longer count on Wade as his Robin. Wade has become more like Alfred The Butler. Bosh is still in his prime but would like to return to his old position at power forward. He has a massive offer on the table from Houston, and once James bolts for Cleveland Bosh will be penning his signature on the Houston deal.

When Spoelstra was asked why James, Wade and Bosh should all stay the course in Miami, he pointed to the Heat’s solid foundation.

”We have a great track record,” Spoelstra said. “And we have a championship, first-class organization. That is our best selling pitch.”

James said he didn’t need to hear what Miami has to offer. He already knows.

”I understand what this team and this franchise brings to the table,” James said. ”That’s what Riles is so great at and obviously Spo’s going to get into it and see guys who can help us get better.

“Every team in the NBA continues to get better every year and we need to get better as well. We have some holes that need to be filled.”

That doesn’t sound like a guy who is ready to take his talents elsewhere. But he has every right to change his mind.

Tim Duncan goes for his fifth NBA championship, while LeBron James aims for his third. (GETTY IMAGES)

Tim Duncan rattled some cages when he told TNT’s David Aldridge that his San Antonio Spurs are excited to face the Miami Heat in the 2014 NBA Finals.

“We’re glad that we’re back here. We’re excited about it. We got four more to go. We’ll do it this time,” Duncan said moments after the Spurs eliminated the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals.

The “we’ll do it this time” comment is out of character for the normally stoic and very bland Duncan. It just shows how much the loss to the the Heat in 2013 Finals still stings. Duncan and Co. were seconds away from title No. 5 and let it slip away.

Duncan called last year’s loss “devastating” and it was no secret the Spurs still have that bad taste in their mouths, and couldn’t wait to meet the Heat again to redeem themselves.

“We’re happy to have another opportunity at it,” Duncan said. “We’re happy it’s the Heat again.”

Duncan’s comment reverberated all the way to South Beach. During the Heat’s practice session, LeBron fired back and said: “They don’t like us. They don’t. I can sense it from Timmy’s comments. They wanted this. They wanted us. And we’ll be ready for the challenge.”

The back-and-forth jabs between James and Duncan tells you how much this championship means not only for their teams but their respective legacies.

For LeBron, a third straight title puts him in the same conversation as Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Russell’s Celtics, Jordan’s Bulls and the Shaq- and Kobe-led Lakers are the only teams to three-peat.

“It makes me relevant,” James said of winning a third title. “I’m always humbled every time I’m compared to one of the greats. Obviously, in all our eyes, Michael Jordan is the greatest player to ever play this game. To even be in the same breath as Michael Jordan is very humbling. It lets me know that I’ve done something right.”

Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel calls LeBron “the Michael Jordan of our era,” so pulling off a three-peat puts James one step closer to Jordan’s throne.

However, another Finals loss — third time in seven seasons — knocks LeBron down a few pegs in the history books. But a third consecutive NBA championship elevates LeBron’s profile tremendously. It will validate his decision to leave Cleveland and join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. It will vault him into the top 10 list of greatest players of all time — a list that includes Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Kobe, Shaq and Olajuwon.

James could very well knock off Duncan from the top-10 list should the Heat beat the Spurs for a second time.

Speaking of Duncan, a fifth ring puts the Spurs’ big man in rare company. It will cement his legacy as one of the greatest players in NBA history and the best player in the post-Jordan era. It will certainly create a great debate on where he belongs on the list of G.O.A.T.

A fifth ring would elevate Duncan over his rival Shaq, who won four championships and went through Duncan’s Spurs in two of those playoff runs. Duncan would also move up in the all-time rankings ahead of Hakeem Olajuwon (two), and Wilt Chamberlain (two), and put him on equal footing with Magic (five) and Kobe (five).

When asked about his legacy, in classic Tim Duncan fashion, he shrugged it off.

“There will be a time to look back on that once everything is over,” Duncan said Wednesday. “For right now all I’m focused on is getting another one. This is all that counts right now.”

Joel Huerto is editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.