Game 1 of the NBA Finals tips off Thursday night in Denver. The Heat (+9) are coming off a grueling 7-game series with the Boston Celtics, while the Nuggets are well rested after sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers. The altitude combined with little down time could spell trouble for the Heat in Game 1 as the Nuggets are undefeated at home this postseason.
It will be interesting to see how Miami handles the size difference and if they will deploy Kevin Love and Cody Zeller to throw more big bodies at Jokic. If not, we could see more of the small ball lineup that Miami had gone with to close the Boston series. Nuggets head coach Mike Malone should be a more formidable opponent for Erik Spoelstra, but the gap between these two teams is greater than anything Miami has faced all postseason. The Bucks only had Giannis two full games returning from injury, the Knicks were abysmal offensively, and we cannot overlook how Jayson Tatum's injury impacted Game 7. I'm expecting this series to be over in 4 or 5, but Game 1 will tell us a lot about both teams.
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