NBA Finals Game 1 Preview: Lakers Vs Heat

It will be the first time in history that the NBA Finals will be played behind closed doors. Game 1 gets underway tonight between the Lakers and the Heat and there is a lot of bad blood to go around. 

The Lakers were dominant in the playoffs, and are the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. They are seeking to win their NBA-best 17th championship but they are playing against the giant killers from Miami. The Cinderella story, Miami Heat is the No. 5 seed but they have found a way to beat their competition so far. This series will be their biggest test yet, but, they are not going to back down against any team.

LeBron Making History

There are quite a few storylines taking place around this series, but none bigger than the fact that Lebron James won his first NBA Championship with the Miami Heat nearly a decade ago, only to move back to Cleveland in an attempt to take the Cavs to the NBA Championship glory, which he did in 2016. But, last year, James moved to the Lakers to try to win a new ring. Miami fans are still hurt by James' abrupt leaving so he is lucky the arena will be closed to fans for the series. 

Don't Sleep on the Heat

There were two games between the Lakers and the Heat during the regular season and the Lakers owned both games, albeit under very different circumstances. The first was a 95-80 win in LA, wherein the Lakers defensively held the Heat to only 34-points in the second half. The second game was a lot closer in Miami but the Lakers came out on top again, 113-110.

The last time they met was before the Coronavirus Pandemic hit, and, before the Heat acquired Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder who have both been instrumental in the Heat winning tough games in the playoffs. 

Iguodala is no stranger to guarding James and even won a Finals MVP award based on his work against LeBron in 2015. Crowder has also played both with and against LeBron in the past. 

The Heat has become one of the best teams in the NBA and although they are seeded No. 5, they have been beating teams that they shouldn't be, at least on paper. Miami is an entirely different team on the court and leaders like Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Goran Dragic, and the rest of the roster have been totally different than what we are used to. 

NBA Finals Odds

The NBA Finals is one of the heaviest bet championship series' in the world. Millions of punters will have made bets on Game 1 and will continue to do so throughout the best-of-seven matchup. The Heat is used to be in the underdog position and nothing has changed for this series. bet365 Sports has them listed at 2.70 to win Game 1, while the Lakers are at 1.50. Punters are also able to make a wager on the outright winner of the series, which is also in favor of the Lakers at 1.27, while the Heat come in at 3.80. 

The odds in this article at the bookmaker mentioned were accurate at the time of writing, Sept. 29 at 12:15 GMT.