Analyst Picks The Miami Heat To Win The NBA Finals
The NBA playoffs will begin tomorrow, which means analysts will start making their picks for the postseason.
NBA analyst Skip Bayless gave his Finals matchup on Fox Sports' Skip and Shannon: Undisputed. Bayless picked the Miami Heat over the Memphis Grizzlies. He said that the experience of each team factors into his ultimate decision between the two. Bayless has a point on that.
"Give me Memphis in the West and the Heat in the East,” Bayless said. “I’ll just say on just sheer experience, just on the Pat Riley factor, I will take the Heat over the Grizzlies in the Finals. The Grizzlies are going to get back to several Finals, but right now I’ll go Heat because I think they are perfectly positioned atop the East to win it all."
Under Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra, the Heat have been to the Finals six times, winning three championships. Their latest trip was two seasons ago when they lost 4-2 to the Los Angeles Lakers, so they have Finals experience. The Heat also have the veteran presence of Kyle Lowry, P.J. Tucker, and Udonis Haslem. All have won at least one NBA championship.
The Grizzlies are a very young group, with their oldest player being center Steven Adams (age 28). They have very little postseason experience, as none of the team’s members have been to the Finals.
The top-seeded Heat are set to play the No. 8 seed, either the Cleveland Cavaliers or Atlanta Hawks, on Sunday.
Jayden Armant is a contributor to Inside The Heat. He is a student at Howard University. He can be reached at jayden.armant@bison.howard.edu or follow him on Twitter @jaydenarmant.
