By DaVince “Dino” Wright
Game 5 Info
Miami Heat vs Denver Nuggets
Monday – June 12 – 7:30 p.m.
TV: ABC
Ball Arena – Denver, CO
Regular Season Records
Miami Heat (44-38, 17-24 Away)
Denver Nuggets (53-29, 34-7 Home)
NBA Finals Game 5
Nuggets leads series 3-1
While sitting in Starbucks having a coffee and talking to an old man, he brought up the NBA Finals and wanted to get my thoughts on both teams. If you know me, I wanted to give him the full break down and my prediction and finals score. After taking a sip of my caramel latte crunch, I shared that Denver was the better team and Miami was a scrappy team that will never say die. He began to share that Miami was the better team because of one man, Pat Riley. “Pat Riley, has a championship mind, just take a look at his days in LA and the Miami teams of yester-year!” I told him the difference between having a complete team and not just a bunch of scrappy players, that’s a huge difference”. So, let the chips fall where they may tonight in Denver. You can check out all of my previews for the series and let me know how close we are on our final score predictions!
Miami Heat
Miami will have their hands full from the opening tip. The key for the Heat will be to spread the floor and keep the Nuggets big men out of the paint. Rebounding will be key for the Heat on the offensive side of the floor. SG Jimmy Butler will need to be more aggressive on the offensive end. Miami has struggled when key players got into early foul trouble. The x-factor for the Heat will be C Bam Adebayo and Kevin Love.
Denver Nuggets
I can imagine the buzz around the city of Denver. Denver is on the verge of winning their first NBA title. Trust me it is possible. Nuggets C Nikola Jokic will come out and play lights out tonight. Keep an eye of guards Jamal Murray, Christian Braun and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. These three guys will allow the offense to have a flow and control the game.
Prediction
ESPN has the Nuggets with an 81.9% chance of winning tonight and capturing the their first title. I like the Heat but tonight belongs to the Nuggets and the City of Denver. The over/under is 210, so take the over in this one. The spread is Denver -8.5. I’m taking the Nuggets by 14!
Final Score
Nuggets – 128
Heat – 104
