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.

The Milwaukee Bucks staged a boycott prior to their playoff game in the bubble. (AP)

If the NBA players didn’t get people’s attention before, they have it now.

The NBA has been leading the charge in the movement to fight for social justice. Since arriving in the Disney World campus in Orlando, players and coaches have been making loud statements by kneeling, locking arms during the national anthem and wearing inspirational messages on the back of their jerseys from “Black Lives Matter” to “Say Her Name” to “Equality” to Education Reform” to I Am A Man” to “Peace” to “Freedom.” The words “Black Lives Matter” are embedded on the court.

Sadly, the messages weren’t not loud enough.

Senseless shootings of unarmed Black men and police brutality continued. The case of Breonna Taylor remains unresolved. Then, right in the middle of the bubble playoffs, a 29-year-old Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot seven times in the back by Wisconsin police while he was with his children.

The shooting happened in the backyard of the Milwaukee Bucks. They witnessed the same Blake video that circulated on TV and online.

Enough was enough.

The Bucks were fed up. They didn’t feel like playing basketball. Their minds were in Kenosha. So, they staged a boycott.

As tipoff came before Game 5 of the Bucks-Magic first-round series, the Bucks players and coaches were nowhere to be found. They remained in their locker and refused to take the court. When word got around that the Bucks were boycotting a playoff game, the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder, which were scheduled to play next, followed by boycotting their playoff game as well. The Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers soon followed with their own walkout.

Point made loud and clear. The NBA playoffs were put on pause. It was a historic moment in sports. The NBA players flexed their power by refusing to play unless demands were met. That’s how you create social change. Not with T-shirts or stickers or banners. You create change by making things uncomfortable.

There were two Bucks who spoke shortly after the games were officially postponed: George Hill and Sterling Brown.

Hill had been one of the more vocal players in terms of speaking out against continuing to play in the bubble. “We shouldn’t have came to this damn place to be honest,” Hill said days before the walkout.

The other speaker was Brown.

He wrote in the Players’ Tribune that the city of Milwaukee offered him $400,000 to “be quiet” after copes kneeled on his neck, stood on his angle and tased him in a parking lot. In raising police brutality in his essay and speaking in front of his teammates outside of the Bucks locker room in the bubble, Brown no longer wanted to be quiet.

Systemic racism is a difficult and uncomfortable subject to discuss. Props to the Bucks, Rockets, Thunder, Lakers and Blazers for making things uncomfortable.

The NBA players’ monumental decision sparked a widespread protest in other sports as multiple MLB, WNBA and MLS games were postponed and several NFL practices were canceled. The day will go down in history as pivotal point in the Black Lives Matter movement. The players have learned that their message wasn’t getting across loud enough and fast enough. By making a stand and refusing to work, it created a firestorm all across the media. It forced local, state and federal government to listen to the players’ demands.

Hours after Bucks walkout, the league announced and the NBAPA agreed on several new social justice initiatives, including converting NBA arenas into voting sites for the 2020 presidential election in November.

“In every city where the league franchise owns and controls the arena property, team governors will continue to work with local elections officials to convert the facility into a voting location for the 2020 general election to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable to COVID,” the NBA’s statement read. “If a deadline has passed, team governors will work with local elections officials to find another election-related use for the facility, including but not limited to voter registration and ballot receiving boards.”

There are still more work to do, but it’s a step toward progress.

LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo are ready for NBA restart. (Getty Images)

Basketball is back. It may not be the usual games we’ve been accustomed to, but it’ll have to do.

The NBA and its partners have created a unique bubble plan, setting up shop at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.,where 22 teams will be participating in an AAU-type environment. The bubble plan has daily COVID-19 testing and strict policies about entering and reentering the Orlando bubble. When players arrived in the sprawling campus at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex, they quickly found out nothing will be normal about this restart.

Yahoo Sports writer Chris Haynes gave an insider’s perspective on life in the NBA bubble. Teams have designated hotels and food is brought to players’ rooms. There is a “snitch line” that makes sure everyone is following COVID-19 protocol. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, was impressed with the $170 million program. It is the most comprehensive plan from all the major sports leagues dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. If this bubble plan bursts, we might as well cancel the rest of sports for 2020. If it works, you’ll see other leagues implement a similar program. It’s a copycat league.

There was some unfair chatter of a possible asterisk next to the team that wins the 2020 NBA championship. Yeah, there will be an asterisk. But it’ll say this: * Won championship despite going through the most difficult road of any NBA team in history. No home court advantage. No crowds. Giant video monitors serving as backdrops. Practices held inside a ballroom. Plenty of social distancing. And oh by the way, if a player is infected with the coronavirus, they’ll need to be quarantined.

The coronavirus pandemic halted the NBA season for five months. That’s equivalent to an entire offseason. There will be rust. There will be fitness issues (remember Shawn Kemp after the 1999 strike). There will be upsets. There will be missteps. This is a season unlike any other. Buckle up, folks. It’s going to be crazier than Mr. Toad’s wild ride.

The favorites: L.A. Lakers, L.A. Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks

The Lakers, Clippers and Bucks were head and shoulders above the rest of the competition when the sports world shut down on March 11. Fast forward to July following a four-month layoff due to the coronavirus pandemic and the three teams favored to win the NBA title are … drum roll, please … Lakers, Clippers and Bucks. So, basically nothing changed.

The Lakers were probably the team that was most affected by the COVID-19 shutdown as they were coming off huge wins against the Clippers and Bucks days before commissioner Adam Silver hit pause on the 2020 season. The lethal combination of LeBron James and Anthony Davis make the Lakers a difficult matchup for anyone. Offensively, the Lakers have the NBA’s most efficient offense. LeBron has been the Lakers catalyst even at the advanced basketball age of 35. But LeBron is no ordinary baller. In year 17 as a pro, LeBron averages 25 points per game and leads the league in assists (10.6). His offensive game was rounding into playoff form in March. The Lakers did take a hit defensively with the loss of lockdown perimeter defender Avery Bradley, who decided not to participate in the bubble plan. The loss of Bradley leaves a huge void in the backcourt as head coach Frank Vogel will be forced to shuffle his backcourt rotation and may have to give minutes to Dion Waiters and J.R. Smith. Waiters was cast aside by the Miami Heat while J.R. hasn’t played in a meaningful NBA game since 2018.

The team most equipped to handle the Lakers in a playoff series is the Clippers. Reigning Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard wants nothing more than to ruin the Lakers party, become the undisputed king of L.A. and validate his position as the best player in the world. The Clippers have the deepest roster among the 22 teams in the restart. The only question mark(s) is on-court chemistry. Paul George is still rounding into shape coming off surgery to both shoulders while Kawhi remains under load management protocol. PG and Kawhi don’t have lot of court time together, but when both were in action the Clippers were 24-8. The Clippers owned the third-best offensive rating and fifth-best defensive rating. They also have the best bench in the league (51.5 points per game), led by super subs Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell, who could start for many clubs. L.A. also added guard Reggie Jackson and forward Marcus Morris, giving coach Doc Rivers a plethora of options. LouWill and Trez will miss the opening week of the restart, but both are expected to rejoin their teammates when the seeding portion of the schedule concludes. The Clippers are a confident bunch and they’re not worried where they end up in the standings.

The Bucks likely benefitted from the long layoff as they were in a bit of a funk (6-4 in their last 10 games) after the All-Star break. All-Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo sustained a left leg injury during the loss against the Lakers in March and appeared a little fatigued. Milwaukee’s title hopes rest on the broad shoulders of Giannis, who is having an MVP season (29.5 points per game, 13.9 rebounds, shooting 55 percent from the field). He’ll need to be at his absolute best because his supporting cast isn’t good enough to carry him. Good news is The Greek Freak appears to be healthy again. Giannis needs to be special if the Bucks are going to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1974 when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the face of the franchise.

Contenders: Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics

There is a major logjam of teams in the discussion. Even though these teams are all capable of making a deep playoff run, they have some weaknesses that could be exposed and eventually derail their championship hopes.

Houston is going all-in on small ball, putting Robert Covington (6-8) and P.J. Tucker (6-5) in the frontcourt with guards Eric Gordon, Russell Westbrook and James Harden in the backcourt. Coach Mike D’Antoni could either look like a genius or he could lose his job. He will lean on his two superstars, Harden and Westbrook, to generate most of the offense. That’s a heavy burden even for a dynamic duo averaging a combined 61 points a game (No. 1 in the league). If one of them has an off night it could be lights out for the Rockets. As an added distraction, you have the Westbrook COVID-19 positive test. Houston, that’s a problem.

Speaking of COVID-19, Nuggets All-Star center Nikola Jokic is also coming off a positive virus test. The good news is Jokic has recovered and looks in fantastic shape, stunningly slim. The Serbian big man was listed at 280 pounds at the start of the season and he appears to have shed at least 25 pounds. Jokic is the linchpin to everything the Nuggets do. The Nuggets will go only as far as Jokic can carry them.

Did anyone say COVID-19? If there’s such a tag as Team COVID, it’s the Utah Jazz. Center Rudy Gobert was one of the first faces of the coronavirus pandemic as his positive test triggered the league-wide shutdown. Guard Donovan Mitchell also tested positive for the virus, and there was a period during isolation when Gobert and Mitchell were at odds. Mitchell reportedly was upset about Gobert’s careless behavior about the coronavirus. Both appear to have squashed their reported beef. But one issue Gobert and Mitchell won’t be able to fix is the absence of Bojan Bogdanovic. The veteran sharpshooter had wrist surgery and won’t be playing in the bubble. Bogdanovic was averaging 20.2 points per game and 41 percent from 3-point range before shutting it down.

If there was team that needed a reset it would be Philly. The Sixers greatly underachieved during the season and almost seemed disinterested. All-Star center Joel Embiid appeared out of shape prior to the pandemic and fellow All-Star Ben Simmons kept teasing us with his new jump shot but kept disappointing us, too. When they are both clicking, Embiid and Simmons pose a lethal 1-2 punch talented enough to save coach Brett Brown’s job. The reboot could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

The Celtics have a budding star in Jayson Tatum, and he could finally have his breakout moment. The one negative for the Celtics is their lack of size. Tatum is the Celtics’ tallest starter at 6-8 and all their rotational players with the exception of Enes Kanter are 6-8 or shorter. Celtics are severely undersized against their two biggest obstacles: Philly and Milwaukee.

Sleepers: Dallas Mavericks, Toronto Raptors, Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder

What do the Mavericks, Raptors and Heat have in common? They all have coaches with championship pedigree. The restart will be a sprint, and teams with steady leaders should thrive.

Rick Carlisle, who led the Mavericks to an NBA title in 2011, is one of the game’s best in-game strategists and he has a wonderful chess piece to play with in rising superstar Luka Doncic. The Mavs offense revolves around Doncic. The 2019 Rookie of the Year now has a full two years of NBA experience to process in his super high basketball IQ, and his arrow is pointing way up. In his second year in the Association, Doncic nearly averaged a triple-double (28-9-8). Looks like Luka is ready to make the jump into elite status.

It’s a bit odd to call a defending NBA champ a playoff sleeper, but Nick Nurse and the Raptors have gotten almost zero respect following their stunning win in the 2019 NBA Finals over the Golden State Warriors. When Kawhi left for L.A., almost all the basketball pundits left the Raptors for dead. Guess what? The Raptors are still ticking. Paschal Siakam has emerged as a bonafide No. 1 option. Kyle Lowry and Marc Gasol have logged a lot of miles, but they are crafty veterans who know how to turn it on in the postseason. Don’t sleep on the team from The North.

Erik Spoelstra hasn’t had much to work with since LeBron left town and Dwyane Wade’s skills started to fade. This year, Spo has a boatload of talent. With Jimmy Butler leading the way, third-year player Bam Adebayo emerging as the secondary star, role players Kendrick Nunn, Duncan Robinson and rookie Tyler Herro all gaining confidence by the day, Miami has a young, hungry squad looking to put some serious heat inside the Orlando bubble.

Billy Donovan may not have a NBA championship ring, but he does own two college basketball championship plaques when he led the Florida Gators to back-to-back NCAA tournament titles in 2006-07. With the departures of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Paul George, Donovan can freely coach the Thunder without having to worry about hurting a superstar’s ego. And he has a veteran leader in point guard Chris Paul to help him guide a young and energetic squad that will be a tough out.