This year, the crowning of an National Basketball Association (NBA) champion may have looked a little different than normal. This year, the Miami Heat took on the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. Coming into the playoffs, the Miami Heat were the number five seed with a small lineup led by small forward Jimmy Butler and center Bam Adebayo. Throughout the playoffs, guards Goran Dragic and Tyler Herro also contributed consistent performances.

In the first round, the Heat were able to take down the Indiana Pacers with a clean sweep of four wins in a seven-game series.

Miami continued to show their consistent play against the number one seed Milwaukee Bucks. Prior to the start of the playoffs, the Bucks held a league leading record of 56 wins and 17 losses. Many NBA analysts believed the Bucks would take home the Larry O’brien trophy this year. Even 3 time NBA champion Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors picked Milwaukee to win.

The Heat were able to rally against Milwaukee, winning the series four games to one. Despite an injury to reigning league Most Valuable Player (MVP) Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks, Miami was beginning to show glimpses of a possible championship run and moved on to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Heat were again able to come out on top of the series, beating the Celtics four games to two, and sealing a berth in the NBA Finals. The 2020 finals were the Heat’s first finals appearance since the departure of LeBron James in 2014.

In the Western Conference, Lebron James, Anthony Davis, and the Lakers were the favorites to win after showing promising talent over the enormity of the season. They kept that consistency going in the NBA “bubble” leading their way to the NBA finals.

In the first round, the one seed Lakers battled the eight seed Trail Blazers who barely made it into the playoffs with MVP caliber performances from Damian Lillard. Even with the help of Lillard, the Lakers were able to take down the Blazers, beating them four games to one in the series, and would move on to play the Houston Rockets in round two.

The Lakers were able to show their dominance against the Rockets with scoring champ James Harden and 2018 MVP Russel Westbrook. The Lakers took down the Rockets, four games to one to move on and face the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.

With rising stars in Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, they were still no match to the dominant Lakers team as they beat the Nuggets 4-1 and set the stage for the 2020 NBA Finals. LeBron James took on his former team, the Miami Heat in this year’s NBA Finals, and fans couldn’t have asked for a better performance from both teams.

The Lakers took a very quick lead to the series, winning the first two games by an average margin of 10 points. They were off to a very hot start in the series with Anthony Davis scoring 34 points in game one and James scoring 33 points in game two. However, the Heat were able to bounce back in game three beating the Lakers 115-104 with Jimmy Butler stepping up having a 40-point triple double, in 45 minutes played.

The Lakers rebounded from a game three loss and won game four 102-96. Fans were losing hope for the underdog Miami Heat with the series being three games to one in favor of Los Angeles.

In game five, Miami was able to show their determination and beat the Lakers by a very closing margin of three points. Butler played 47 of the 48 minutes, recording another triple-double while scoring 35 points.

In game six of the Finals, the Heat looked promising, but were not enough to stop LeBron and the Lakers as they Lakers won game six 106-93. The Lakers won the 2020 NBA Championship.