I feel like the Clips need some shake up on the staff even if Lue is retained. Felt like they lost a lot when they lost Atkinson as an assistant. No idea how to gauge assistant coaches, but Shaw never seemed like an adequate replacement.

I do think there is something to some teams getting hot at the right time and making a deep playoff run, but carrying a hot streak through like 2 months of playoff basketball is tough. I think the Heat are playing a bit over their heads, and SHOULD ultimately come back down to earth, but maybe they can keep their hot streak going for 3 more games.

Nuggets in 6 sounds about right, but I don’t trust them to take care of business on the road, so at this point I would say Nuggets in 7.

Hyland is a dynamic young player. He makes up for the Jerome Robinson error.

I do think this Miami team is a lot better than the regular season version mainly because of Caleb Martin’s emergence as the team’s 2nd best player, which pushes Bam Adebayo down to #3. Miami doesn’t need Bam to score 24 pts/game to win. That gives Spoelstra a lot of flexibility. Bam never made sense as a 2nd best player on a championship team. He doesn’t have the offensive game or mindset to do it. However, he’s a very credible #3 on a championship team. If he can focus on chasing Jokic around, getting rebounds and around 12-15 points, he can give Miami a fighting chance in these games.

Jimmy is going to have to be an alpha in this series. He can’t pass up shots or take too much time to let others get involved. He needs to go for 30 every game to have a shot. Miami’s guard rotation is deeper than Denver’s and if they get good shooting out of Strus, Lowry, Highsmith and can find a way to make Love playable at the forward spot and get shooting out of him, Miami has a legit shot.

That said, it’s a lot easier to construct scenarios where Denver wins than it is to create one for Miami. Miami has no matchup for Joker, and their front line is too small for Denver’s frontline overall. I think the games will be very competitive and Spoelstra’s coaching and Jimmy’s savvy will get them 2 wins, but it’s harder for me to see them getting to 4 wins.

Denver plays with intention and purpose on offense. They know what they want on most every possession and usually get the shot they want. Most of that is due to Jokic’s ability to read the floor when dribbling the ball up from the backcourt, and his activity in the high post area setting screens, making the dribble hand off pass, rolling to the post/rim, and hitting the corners. At his best he’s a combo of Magic Johnson + a bully ball center with touch and range. Unique player. Tough to stop.