LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat three years ago in the most unusual NBA Finals ever, played neither during the normal season nor in their home arenas.
Those teams might be moving toward something else the league has never seen.
Both have 3-1 leads and can advance to their conference finals Wednesday night, which would leave them one round away from a potential unprecedented championship matchup pitting a No. 7 vs. a No. 8 seed.
The Lakers can get to the Western Conference finals by ending the championship reign of the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 in San Francisco, where they were routed in Game 2 before clamping down the last two games.
“I think we’ll be ready,” James said. “One thing about when you play Golden State, you don’t have an opportunity to relax. You just don’t. So I’m not worried about us going in there comfortable. You just can’t do it versus Golden State, it’s not even — it’s not possible.”
Not that Stephen Curry and the Warriors ever consider themselves out after all the successes and experience to lean on from the past decade. He and Draymond Green have shared with teammates the challenges of being down 3-1 as Golden State held a film session Tuesday and some players like struggling guard Jordan Poole worked on the court.
“The main thing is to focus on the process and just fill up the cup today, recharge, get ready to go tomorrow,” coach Steve Kerr said. “Because we’ve been in these series for a long time, for a decade now, we understand the swings, the back and forth, so we’ve just got to get ready for tomorrow.”
The Heat can finish off the Knicks in New York and get to the conference finals for the third time in four years, this time as the lowest-seeded team in the field.
Defend like these teams do, and it doesn’t matter the number in front of your name.
Los Angeles limited Golden State to 17 points in the fourth quarter to pull out a 104-101 victory on Monday. The Lakers are 17-5 since March 19 and now need only to avoid their first three-game losing streak in three months to book their spot opposite Denver or Phoenix in the West finals.
Do so and they would match the 1987 Seattle SuperSonics for the lowest-seeded team to reach the West finals. A No. 7 seed never has played in the NBA Finals in the current postseason format that began in 1984.
There has been one No. 8, when the Knicks got there in 1999. These Heat continue to show how much they want to be the second, chasing down seven offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter to outwork New York and hold on for a 109-101 victory Monday.