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  • give me your sense of what you expect that match up to be in this Siri's.

  • Well, I think Butler obviously is the primary matchup.

  • And then I think the good thing about Miami in trying to limit James as much as possible is they have Jimmy Butler.

  • Jae Crowder has the strength to play him.

  • And then Iguodala, who played him a lot when he was in Golden State against Cleveland.

  • So they have a third guy.

  • Um, obviously, LeBron poses all these issues, but I think the bigger issue is how they match up with Anthony Davis, where they don't really seem to have a great matchup, particularly when Ella stays big and can they rebound with, um because L.

  • A is so big, so powerful, Um, all over the court.

  • Whereas, you know Miami, they start basically four Smalls, uh, and an undersized center.

  • But that undersized center is bam out of bio, and he has sort of taken the world by storm.

  • Jeff, what can he do?

  • What is he in this Siri's against Anthony Davis?

  • Well, I'm interested.

  • Will they match him up with Anthony Davis to start the game?

  • Or will that go to Jae Crowder and try to keep out of bio out of foul trouble, playing against the bigger, more physical.

  • You know Dwight Howard, but I think he's obviously gonna have toe play exceptionally well, like he did in the Eastern Conference finals.

  • He's gonna have to do it.

  • Um uh, come up huge on the backboard because they are an undersized team and he's gonna have to play huge minutes for him.

  • And so there's a lot on his plate and on his shoulders, and he's going to continue tohave to be a dominant force and a hub on the offensive end as well.

  • Greeny and Jeff Van Gundy, with me here from the Bubble Game one of the Finals tonight on ABC, I asked the question to jail in this way this morning on, Get up.

  • I expect the Lakers to win.

  • Jalen expects the Lakers to win, but if a week and a half from now, Jeff, you're back here with me and we're talking about the Heat winning the Siri's winning the championship, what will it have been?

  • What will they have done, in your view that will have allowed them to pull off what I think most people would consider to be a huge upset.

  • Well, I think it starts with their mentality, right.

  • I don't look at it like it would be a huge upset on.

  • I would suspect Miami thinks they're every bit as good as Elway.

  • That's how they have to think like this is a pick him.

  • Siri's.

  • That's number one, I think to They're gonna have to limit their turnovers because L.

  • A.

  • Is devastating in transition in half court, though, their guard herbal.

  • And I think if Miami can keep it into the half court and not ignite their transition with turnovers, uh, that'll be, Ah, huge factor for him, I think.

  • Third, they're gonna have Thio get that balanced scoring.

  • They can't just go toe one or two guys.

  • They have to play high energy offensive game with a lot of movement and a bunch of different threats on the court.

  • In anyone game, someone can hurt you.

  • And then I think finally, we'd have to say if they were to win it, Man, I can't believe they rebounded so well against L.

  • A.

  • Because L.

  • A have dominated the glass, particularly against smaller teams like Miami.

  • I think those four factors, you know, they've got to get, you know, three of those four toe.

  • Win it.

  • Jeff Van Gundy is with me here with excellent insight into a ah syriza and a a Siris of chess matches.

  • That will be fascinating.

  • One of the good things that I think has come from these last six or eight weeks.

  • Jeff, is Erik Spoelstra getting recognized for being a great coach, which I'm sure you already knew.

  • But I think most people, when they look back on the run that the heat had when LeBron was there, LeBron gets all of the credit.

  • And wherever he goes, the coach tends to get comparatively little.

  • I think the world is seeing Erik Spoelstra for being a great coach right now.

  • What specifically would you say?

  • He has done so well to get his team here?

  • Well, I think in general it's the steadiness of his leadership.

  • And you know these before this season, Mike, over the past five years since the James left, they missed the playoffs three of the five years, right?

  • And and yet, no matter what type of iteration the heat we're putting out that year, he just coached.

  • He led, and he gave them their best.

  • Chance is toe win, and I think the thing I admire about Eric is he combines, as does Frank Vogel and Brad Stevens and a lot of these coaches, great expertise with supreme humility.

  • That's hard to do.

  • And as far as James getting a lot of the credit, I find it interesting that no matter who coaches LeBron James, they get very little credit.

  • But the guy that LeBron James is often compared to Michael Jordan, his coach, Phil Jackson, got a ton of credit, and I wonder why it is that we try to diminish the coaching of, like a great player like LeBron James when, heck, there's never been a great coach who hasn't coach great players.

  • That's how you become a great coach.

  • And so with Spoelstra, I've always thought because he's so humble and he deflects all credit, Uh, Thio, the people above him, to the players, to his assistant coaches that somehow we've fallen for that and instead of giving him or credit, we've given everybody else credit except for him.

  • Maybe you've answered your own question.

  • If there's I love Phil Jackson, I covered him for years.

  • But if there's one thing, no one would accuse him of being its humble and so so I think, Andi, I think he'd be the first person to acknowledge that.

  • So maybe that's the biggest difference between the two of them.

  • Again.

  • The Heat and the Lakers.

  • Game one of the Finals tonight.

  • Nine.

  • Eastern on ABC.

  • Jeff Van Gundy and company with the call.

  • Thank you, Jeff.

  • Enjoy.

  • Tonight we'll all be watching.

  • Thank you for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.

  • Subscribe to ESPN, plus.

give me your sense of what you expect that match up to be in this Siri's.

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