Suns vs. Bucks Rematch and 5 Other NBA Finals Matchups We Want This Season
Parity is running wild this NBA season.
Eleven teams have at least a 2 percent chance to win the title, according to FiveThirtyEight's projection system. Three (the Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks) are at 17 percent or higher.
Similar odds can be found at the projection systems from Basketball Reference and ESPN as well as FanDuel's sportsbook.
Gone are the days of the Golden State Warriors' being crowned before the season even started. There are real arguments for several teams to emerge from the crowd.
And that means an abundance of possibilities for Finals matchups.
Based on entertainment value, narrative options and the actual basketball the teams would play, these are the six Finals matchups we really want to see.
76ers vs. Nuggets
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The Hook: Joel Embiid vs. Nikola Jokić
Nikola Jokić and Joel Embiid have finished first and second in MVP voting in each of the last two seasons. Basketball Reference's MVP tracker ("based on a model built using previous voting results") sees this season ending with the same top two.
They are, without question, the two best centers in the world. And they're already two of the best of all time. A meeting in the Finals would be a throwback to eras when bigs dominated the game, but with a modern twist, of course.
Jokić may be 6'11" and almost 300 pounds, but he is, for all intents and purposes, the Denver Nuggets' point guard.
Embiid is a seven-footer (who's also almost 300 pounds) who can bang inside like a 1990s center, but he also has a scoring repertoire reminiscent of Kobe Bryant's.
This is a historic head-to-head rivalry that almost demands battles on the game's biggest stage, but a Finals matchups would be about more than these two.
James Harden has a career and playoff résumé that could be as affected as any by a title. Jamal Murray has already hit playoff heights matched only by few in history (just Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain and Allen Iverson have more 50-point games in the playoffs).
With those two and the aforementioned centers in action, the winner of this matchup could claim to be the spiritual successors to the big-guard legacy of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe.
Warriors vs. Celtics
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The Hook: 2022 Finals Rematch
The Boston Celtics led the 2022 Finals 2-1. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were on track to check the most important legacy box at 23 and 25 years old.
But one of the 10 greatest players in NBA history had other ideas.
The Warriors won the last three games, and Stephen Curry averaged 31.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 4.3 threes in those contests.
On the way to his first Finals MVP, he gave us one of the most memorable moments of his career, when he pointed to his ring finger midway through the third quarter of Game 6.
Surely, that moment is etched in the minds of the young Celtics. On their floor, with more than a quarter to play, Curry flaunted his eventual fourth title in front of the Boston faithful.
Tatum, Brown, most of the rest of last year's core and new addition Malcolm Brogdon exacting revenge would be a fitting way for the Celtics to secure their 18th title and put a little distance between themselves and the Los Angeles Lakers (who also have 17 championships).
On the other hand, Golden State's fifth ring with Curry would force lofty legacy conversations. Five championships would tie him with Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan and move him ahead of LeBron James.
Would that make him the clear-cut best of his era? Would it move him above Magic Johnson (who has five titles) on the all-time leaderboard?
There would be arguments against him in both cases, but they wouldn't be great ones.
Suns vs. Bucks
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The Hook: 2021 Finals (and 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals) Rematch
Kevin Durant's going to the Phoenix Suns was a league-altering move. It took the Brooklyn Nets out of contention and vaulted the Suns back in.
And that opens up the possibility of a pair of rematches.
Two years ago, in the Eastern Conference semifinals, KD and Giannis Antetokounmpo had one of the most epic playoff matchups ever.
In those seven games, the two superstars' averages were absurd:
- Giannis: 31.9 PTS, 12.9 REB, 3.6 AST, 1.0 BLK
- Durant: 35.4 PTS, 10.6 REB, 5.4 AST, 2.7 3PT, 1.6 STL, 1.1 BLK
And if it weren't for Durant's infamous big-toe shot, NBA history might look a lot different.
Resuming that head-to-head rivalry in the Finals would be reason enough for this potential matchup to make the list. But of course, that same year also gave us Antetokounmpo and the Bucks beating the Suns for his first championship.
Like the Celtics against the Warriors in 2022, Phoenix had what felt like a commanding lead. But after going up 2-0, the Suns dropped four straight.
Antetokounmpo averaged 35.2 points, 13.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.2 steals. He had an absurd alley-oop finish in Game 5 that will go down as one of the best highlights in Finals history.
Then, he had 50 in the closeout game.
A repeat performance (or anything like it) against Phoenix would vault Giannis into the top 15-20 players of all time (if he's not already there).
If Durant stopped him, it would have perhaps even bigger ramifications. It would be Durant's third championship and first non-Stephen Curry title, something he's chased since leaving the Warriors in 2019. The latter achievement would enhance his legacy to the point he might be considered the face of this era.
Clippers vs. Celtics
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The Hook: The Los Angeles Clippers Finally Break Through
The Los Angeles Clippers are on the verge of sliding into the play-in tournament, but it still feels like the healthy version of the team is a title contender.
When Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are on the floor, L.A. is plus-10.1 points per 100 possessions with a 96th percentile offense.
And though he has played only one game with the team (a historic 176-175 double-overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings), you can already see how Russell Westbrook might fit alongside the two wings.
If Westbrook is focused on driving, drawing defenders and then kicking out to Leonard or George, this signing might actually work. And the rest of the roster has enough versatility and switchability to thrive in the playoffs.
If that means the four-year run of Kawhi and PG will culminate in a Finals appearance, the Celtics might be the most entertaining opponent.
In some ways, it feels like Boston has the younger version of that forward combo in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. And like L.A., it has surrounded its top two with several players who defend, hit threes and embrace their smaller roles.
The toe-to-toe between the duos would lead to high-end basketball, and Russ' presence would add a layer of unpredictability few other potential series can offer.
Mavericks vs. Heat
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The Hook: Dallas Mavericks vs. Miami Heat III (Plus Kyrie Irving's Free Agency)
Luka Dončić is almost certainly going to make an NBA Finals in his career.
He will turn 24 on Tuesday, he has career playoff averages of 32.5 points, 9.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists, and he was just one series shy of the biggest stage in 2022.
And now, he has a Finals-tested No. 2 in Kyrie Irving, who is more talented than any teammate Luka has ever had.
The duo's getting to the Finals (or winning a championship) would throw a wrench into the offseason script too.
Irving is on an expiring contract, and there's already buzz about his joining the Lakers this summer. Trying to predict his plans is a fool's errand, but assuming he's leaning toward L.A., would he really ditch a title team to get there?
With all the issues he's caused over the last several years, including his most recent suspension with the Nets for promoting a movie containing antisemitic themes on his social media and then initially refusing to apologize or condemn antisemitism, even winning a championship wouldn't guarantee Irving a long-term deal alongside Luka.
Of course, this potential Finals matchup would feature more than one team. And while a Dončić vs. Jayson Tatum or Dončić vs. Giannis Antetokounmpo head-to-head would be fun, the idea of Dallas Mavericks-Miami Heat III is even better.
As an organization, Dallas has been to the Finals twice. It lost to Miami in 2006 and exacted revenge in 2011. And though there's been plenty of roster turnover between then and now, Mark Cuban and Pat Riley are still around. And the fans of each team could certainly get up for a tiebreaking series.
Nuggets vs. Bucks
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The Hook: Nikola Jokić vs. Giannis Antetokounmpo
One of the best basketball games of the last year was overseas, in a EuroBasket tune-up between the national teams of Serbia and Greece.
The winners of the last four NBA MVP awards, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokić faced off in an epic overtime clash that ended with a Serbian victory.
But this rivalry between arguably the two best basketball players in the world deserves a seven-game series with the sport's biggest stakes.
And, for what it's worth, projection systems such as FiveThirtyEight's see it as a very real possibility. It gives the Nuggets a 22 percent chance to win the championship, while it has Milwaukee at 17 percent.
Of course, Jokić and Giannis might not directly match up with each other in that head-to-head (good luck to Brook Lopez and Aaron Gordon on that front), but they're undeniably the engines of their respective teams.
And, as is the case with Jokić and Joel Embiid, the debate between the two-time reigning MVP and Giannis could take a significant turn depending on the outcome of this series.
