Conference Finals Previews
Who will be the last two teams aboard our championship bus?
BY DAVID THORPE
Nobody wants to revisit a damned thing from 2020, when Covid helped create the Disney Bubble. The four conference finalists that season were all seen as having benefited from that unique tournament. But here we are less than three years later with the same four teams and all the same stars
Back then, LeBron’s Lakers were heavy favorites. That’s not the case this time around—not even close. This year the questions are:
Can LeBron lead his seventh-seeded team to win his fifth ring? Or will Nikola Jokić do what Giannis Antetokounmpo did two seasons ago and add a Finals MVP to his regular-season trophies?
And can Jayson Tatum maintain his nuclear scoring prowess from the past five quarters and return the Celtics to the Finals? Or will Erik Spoelstra and Jimmy Butler orchestrate a stunning second run to the Finals in four tries?
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