After a year marked by a lack of normalcy, the National Basketball Association (NBA)’s season concluded with a sight familiar to fans: LeBron James hoisting the Larry O’Brien championship trophy, this time with the Los Angeles Lakers after they defeated the Miami Heat in Game 6 by a score of 106-93 to win the NBA Finals 4-2.
James was named the NBA Finals MVP for the fifth time in his career. In game 6, he put up a triple-double with 28 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists and was named Finals MVP. This is his fourth NBA championship, and he’s now the first player to be named Finals MVP with three different teams.
Anthony Davis, James’s All-Star teammate, earned his first championship after just one year in Los Angeles. He led the Lakers throughout the playoffs, and finished the finals with averages of 25 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks per game.
The Jimmy Butler-led Heat had momentum heading into Game 6, but the Lakers proved too much to handle, as Miami was handily defeated in the series’ closing game.
A number of players stepped up for the Lakers throughout the course of their postseason run. Rajon Rondo emerged as a dependable contributor throughout the playoffs, and Dwight Howard was a key element to the Lakers’ defeating the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was third in scoring for Los Angeles in the Finals, averaging just under 13 points per game.
The Lakers had an exceptional regular season in which they finished with a 52-19 record and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. Prior to the Finals, they defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, the Houston Rockets and the Denver Nuggets, with each series lasting five games. The Heat were the first team in the postseason to take the Lakers beyond Game 5.
The 2019-20 NBA season will go down as one of the most unusual and adverse in the league’s history following the league-wide pause prompted by COVID-19, numerous instances of players potentially sitting out games in solidarity with social justice movements and the passing of NBA and Lakers icon Kobe Bryant. With all of that surrounding context, the Lakers’ 17th championship was unlike any other.
Photo Courtesy of Bill Reiter
