How will the NBA’s “Bubble Finals” Between the Lakers and Heat be Remembered?

On June 4, 2020, when 29 out of 30 NBA teams voted to resume the 2019-20 season within a meticulously designed isolation zone at Disney World in Florida, there was a lot of skepticism shared among fans regarding how successful this “bubble” would be at preventing another shutdown of the league due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those concerns were quickly assuaged, as the bubble proved largely capable of keeping players and team personnel away from the virus, facilitating the conclusion of the regular season and for the NBA Playoffs to take place as planned. 

Despite the success of the bubble in allowing the season to play out and for a champion to be crowned, there has been a sentiment that the 2020 Playoffs will go down in the NBA’s history books with an asterisk next to it due to the unusual nature of the season. Some have argued that because the circumstances surrounding the playoffs affected many players and entire teams, that the season’s results can be considered less legitimate. 

These arguments were given further credence in the eyes of some due to the first-round exits in the 2021 NBA Playoffs by both of the teams in the 2020 NBA Finals, the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers. The argument is that the success of these two teams in the 2020 tournament was a fluke and that their poor performance in the very next year’s playoffs confirms that. 

Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks dispatched of the Heat in the first round of the playoffs, less than one year after the Heat’s run to the 2020 NBA Finals. (Issac Baldizon | NBAE via Getty Images)

I would argue the exact opposite of this. The fall of the Heat in the 2021 season had more to do with injuries than a change in circumstance. Jimmy Butler missed 20 games this past season, and with the regular season shortened to just 72 games total that missed time had a larger impact than it would in a standard, 82-game season. They also suffered from an unfavorable matchup in the first round, as they were swept by the team that went on to win the NBA Championship, the Milwaukee Bucks. 

The Finals MVP-to-be Giannis Antetokounmpo struggled in that series, leading his team in scoring in just one of the four games, but the same could be said for Butler. The Bucks also won two of their three games against the Heat in the regular season. While Miami certainly regressed this season, I attribute their playoff woes more to being matched up with a Bucks team far superior to the one that Miami knocked off in the semifinals in 2020.

It was a similar story for the Lakers on the Western Conference side of the bracket. Dealing with injuries that forced superstar duo LeBron James and Anthony Davis to miss 27 and 36 games respectively in the regular season, their seeding position plummeted from first seed in 2020 to seventh seed in 2021. They, too, were stuck in the first-round series against a team that would go on to reach the Finals, the Phoenix Suns. 

With a 2-1 lead early in the series for the Lakers, Davis went down with a groin injury in Game 4, forcing him to sit out in Game 5 where the Suns took control and gained a 3-2 advantage. He played five minutes of the deciding Game 6, but was visibly uncomfortable and was pulled from the floor once it became clear he was at risk of worsening the injury. His absence was felt by the Lakers, as they simply could not play at the level of their 2020 championship run without their star big man.

The argument that the Heat and Lakers’ failures in the 2021 Playoffs certify the illegitimate nature of the 2020 Finals has some glaring holes once the context is given regarding their losses this year. While it is possible that, in some capacity, playing out the season from their home state of Florida gave the Heat a boost in 2020, their successes in those playoffs were earned by superior play and greater effort. 

Many of the Heat’s players stepped up in the 2020 postseason in ways that they didn’t in 2021; the clearest example of this is Tyler Herro, who averaged 16 points per game and 37.5 percent shooting from the three-point line in the 2020 playoffs compared to nine points and 31.6 percent in those of 2021. Butler himself also underperformed in the Heat’s first-round loss, averaging 14.5 points per game, his lowest playoff average since his age-24 season in 2014. The Lakers, meanwhile, undeniably suffered from the injury bug, affecting them greatly in both the regular season and their first-round exit.

The outcome of the 2021 campaigns of the Lakers and Heat does not nullify their successes in the previous season. It was the level of play of both teams, not a boost given to them by their environment or a disadvantage that affected every other playoff team that year, that allowed them both to reach the NBA Finals in 2020. While the 2020 season will stand out in the history books for its unusual nature, the merit of the two Finals teams should not be lessened by the circumstances.