The 2023 NBA Finals have kicked off in style. The Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat faced off in Game 1 at the Ball Arena. Undoubtedly, fans and media persons were all excited to see the two teams square off against each other. After all, both the Nuggets and Heat have dominated their opponents pretty well the entire postseason. Therefore, almost every NBA analyst was very well invested in the game. On the other hand, Stephen A. Smith wasn’t quite as interested.
Smith was on air on his show ‘NBA in Stephen A’s World’. The show is live-streamed simultaneously with the basketball game being played. Smith is the host of the show and invites guests from all over to come and talk about it. During the Nuggets-Heat game, he was conversing with former American Football quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning played for the Denver Broncos in the NFL before his retirement in 2016. Both he and Smith had diverged from basketball during a basketball game with their conversation, leaving fans fed up.
Out of the many viewers of Stephen A. Smith’s show, one NBA player too was quite fed up with the conversation. Portland Trailblazers point guard Damian Lillard took to Twitter to express his discontent with Smith’s show. “When Stephen A show over lol… like come on bra,” he tweeted as the tone clearly suggested disappointment, Lillard also had many fans commenting on his tweet articulating the same emotion.
On the other hand, Manning and Smith discussed the Denver Broncos on TV. “I like my Broncos. I wish the Chiefs would get out of the division, Stephen A. Unfortunately, they’re not going anywhere. So, we’ve still got some work to do.” Manning said while the Miami Heat were running the offense in the third quarter. “I like Sean Payton he’s a good coach,” said Stephen A. Smith in response.
The 2023 NBA Finals kick off in style
All eyes were on the Denver Nuggets and the Miami Heat as the 2023 NBA Finals kicked off in Denver. Both teams have been dominating all postseason in completely different and opposite contexts. While Denver walked in as the first seed, Miami took everyone by surprise as they are the second time in NBA history to make the finals after being the eighth seed.
As the Finals tipped off, Denver looked as fine in touch as they were all season long. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray led the way yet again as they both combined for 53 points. Jokic put up another triple-double with 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 14 assists to his name. On the other hand, Jimmy Butler was rather quiet as he managed to score 13 points. Bam Adebayo and Gabe Vincent led the scoring for the Heat with 26 and 19 points each. The score at the end of regulation was 93-104.
Although the Denver Nuggets have a 1-0 series lead, the Finals are far from over. The Heat have found a way to win against mighty teams in the East previously in the Playoffs. They’ve been tight with their adjustments and have played exceptionally well as a unit. There’s no doubt that they will look to come back stronger and level the series 1-1 in Game 2 before heading home for Games 3 and 4.
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