NBA Championship Predictions: April 24
With the first round of the NBA Playoffs in full swing, some early surprises have changed the outlook on the rest of the postseason. What better time than now to try to predict the NBA Championship?
Eastern Conference Champions: Miami Heat
The Eastern Conference is wide open.
Both the 76ers and Celtics look great so far, having yet to drop a game in their respective series’, but the 76ers, specifically coach Doc Rivers, can never seem to find a way to get over the top. The Celtics have a young, inexperienced coach along with a roster full of young, inexperienced players outside of Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brown and Marcus Smart.
The Bucks are another option, but the Khris Middleton injury and lack of information on his timetable to return could prove to be too big of a hurdle to overcome.
The only team left that has the mix of starpower, depth, experience and great coaching are the No. 1 seed Miami Heat.
The Heat still deploy their two big names that took them to the championship in the 2020 bubble in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
They also still have potential sixth man of the year, Tyler Herro, and sharpshooter Duncan Robinson who played on the 2020 team, as well.
On top of all the mainstays, they’ve added the likes of Kyle Lowry and P.J. Tucker, two veterans with championship resumes.
And, of course, leading the way is Erik Spoelstra, who has appeared in five NBA Finals with the Heat, including two championship wins.
Western Conference Champions: Golden State Warriors
The Western Conference is somewhat easier to gauge than the Eastern Conference at the moment and would be even easier if Devin Booker’s injury didn’t throw a wrench in the Suns’ potential.
Phoenix is far and away the best team in the NBA, but with Booker’s injury potentially sidelining him for two to four weeks and the chance of it lingering after that, the Suns might need a miracle to pull off another run to the NBA Finals.
However, even if the Suns had Booker, the Warriors still would have a great chance to go all the way.
Like the Heat in the East, they still have multiple big name players that have already made it to the Finals multiple times in Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
But, in this case, these players have won the Finals three times already, so they know what it takes.
Three-time champion head coach Steve Kerr is also manning the bench in Golden State, so he has the experience necessary to catapult his team to the finish line.
This Warriors team is as deep as any team in the league, deploying impact role players such as Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, Kevon Looney, Gary Payton II, Otto Porter Jr. and Andre Igoudala, who won NBA Finals MVP with Golden State back in 2015.
NBA Finals Champion
While both of these teams have what it takes to win it all, only one can take home the Larry O’Brien Trophy, and that team will be the Warriors.
While the depth and coaching seems fairly even on paper, Golden State’s star power, experience and chemistry could prove to be too strong for the Heat to overcome.
However, this series could very well go to seven games, as this will be one of the most thrilling NBA Finals the league has seen in quite some time.
Jakob Schnur is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jks6463@psu.edu.
