The scenario of the West Conference Finals  

Final time has come in the west where the majority of star players are. From the beginning of the year, the fans had been waiting for the Lakers-Clippers final. But one team surprised everyone: Denver

Before the playoffs, Denver was the team everyone wanted to match. Utah was the team that achieved this. Denver started the playoffs very badly and fell 3-1 against Utah, which only played with 6 players. But with Murray’s rising form, Denver brought the series to 3-3. In the 7th game, which witnessed great excitement, the Denver beat Utah with Mike Conley’s missing shot.

But no one gave Denver a chance against the Clippers, who played a bad Utah series. With stars like Kawhi, George, Harrell, Lou Williams, the Clippers were thought to win easily by authorities. As a matter of fact, the Clippers took a 3-1 lead. However, the success of Nba’s return from 3-1, which was made 9 times in the play-off history until this season, Denver repeated its success for the second time in the same season and took the tour. This was just as important to the Denver players’ success, as did Kawhi and George’s terrible 7th game performance.

Murray’s offensive performance and Jokic’s dominant play were the main factors in Denver’s rising form. However, preventing these players’ defensive weaknesses with Millsap, Grant and Morris, make them qualify for the final.

Lakers finished the season as the best team of the western conference. But the break of the season broke their rhythm. This caused trolls like Charles Barkley to say “Portland beats Lakers 4-0″. However, from the second game of the series, the Lakers increased the gear. They first beat Portland and then Houston with 4-1. During this process, it was very important for the Lakers to increase the form of Lebron James and the shooters. In addition, the adjustments of coach Frank Vogel were also important for the series. For example against Houston, he almost never played Mcgee and Howard who their center players. These factors and the presence of play-off Lebron James make them the biggest favorite of the championship.

In this series, I think Denver will try to stop Davis and Lebron with names such as Millsap, Grant and Craig. The Lakers will not want Davis to get into the foul problem against Jokic. For this reason, Mcgee and Howard will take time in this series. The energies of Caruso, Caldwell-Pope and Green will be effective against Jamal Murray. I don’t think Murray will be as effective in this series as the Utah series or the last 3 games of the Clippers series. Also the Denver, who plays 2 times 7-games series will get tired against Lakers. For these reasons, NBA legendary team Lakers will be the western champion ( first time since 2010 ). I think the Lakers will win the series 4-2.

Onat Orhan Selvi

Image: Sports Yahoo

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