This year’s NBA Finals was different than any Finals we’ve ever seen before. Once Covid started spreading wildly throughout the country, the NBA season was suspended, and fans and players had no idea when or if it may start again. The NBA made plans to restart the season in early August. Twenty-two of the 30 teams made their way to Orlando and started quarantining.

The teams that were allowed to play in the bubble were all in the playoffs or within 8 games of making the playoffs. After an initial two day individual quarantine in their rooms, the players and team staff were allowed to freely move around their teams Disney Resort. The following month was full of practices and a few scrimmages. Then, on July 30, the regular season restarted. After each team played eight regular season games the playoffs began.

The beginning of the playoffs were slightly different than usual. The 8th and 9th seed had to play in a three game series to decide who would get the last spot in the playoffs. In a regular playoff season, the fans play a big part in games, by making noise and cheering on their home teams, but because the games were being played fan-less, the NBA had to implement new ways of creating home court advantage. Crowd noise was fed into the arenas that the games were taking place in, along with screens that displayed virtual fans who cheered the players on.

After the first round of the playoffs, players from the advancing teams could have one family member in the stadium to cheer them on. This opened up a slightly bigger home court advantage for the higher seeded teams. The second round had a couple shocking series with the underdog Miami Heat defeating the higher seeded Milwaukee Bucks in just five games, and the Denver Nuggets overcoming a 3-1 series deficit to beat the title favorite Los Angeles Clippers in seven games.

The Conference Finals matchups were now set with the Los Angeles Lakers facing off against the Denver Nuggets in the West, and the Miami Heat playing the Boston Celtics in the East. The Western Conference series ended quickly, as expected with the Lakers beating the Nuggets in five games. The Eastern Conference was slightly longer; the Heat were victorious over the Celtics in six hard fought matchups.

The NBA Finals were now set to be the heavily favored L.A. Lakers vs. the Miami Heat. After two convincing wins for the Lakers led by Lebron James and Anthony Davis, the Lakers took a commanding 2-0 series lead. The Heat then fought back hard to take game 3 with an impressive performance by Jimmy Butler. L.A. showed the Heat that they weren’t going to give up the series lead, and took a 3-1 advantage. The Heat only took one more game before losing to the Lakers in 6 games.