Miami Heat Rumors: Do the Lakers really want to play this Heat team?

The Miami Heat are a won game away from heading to the NBA Finals. Already there, the LA Lakers reportedly want Miami.

The Miami Heat are just one potential victory away from sealing their fates. They are just one complete game performance away from punching their tickets to the NBA Finals.

Unable to get it done on Friday night, the Miami Heat now have a second chance to do it again as they face the Boston Celtics in a Sunday evening matchup.

Whomever wins the series, hopefully the Heat of course, will have to face a team from the NBA’s Western Conference that has already sealed their own fate.

On Saturday night, the Los Angeles Lakers finally put the Denver Nuggets’ season to bed. After coming back from down 3-1 in each of their previous two playoff bouts, Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, and their Nuggets were unable to do it a third time.

Here’s the thing though, after the game, there were some different kind of nuggets revealed. On the post game show, TNT’s Inside The NBA for the Western Conference Finals, former Miami Heat champion, All-Time NBA great, and one of the best commentators on TV, Shaquille O’Neal, dropped off some information that we as Heat fans might find interesting.

In between 5:50 and 6:00 in the following clip, Shaq can be heard spilling the beans. Check it out.

So, he says that he has it on good information that the Lakers want to play the Miami Heat, huh? Well, I don’t believe that and here’s why.

The Miami Heat haven’t made the NBA Finals yet, but that doesn’t mean that the Los Angeles Lakers don’t want them there, or does it?

When you look at the two teams in the East, the team that best matches up with the Lakers are the guess who… Miami Heat. With a guy in Bam Adebayo who can match up with anyone, including Anthony Davis and probably better than anyone else in the league, along with a slew of different bodies to throw at LeBron, the Heat are actually the team that would give them the most problems.

Also consider this, Miami has a team full of wings that have at one point or another been assigned to “stop LeBron”. Although nobody has been extremely successful at it, Jae Crowder, Andre Iguodala, and Jimmy Butler have all had experience and don’t mind stepping up to the challenge.

Throw in Solomon Hill, Derrick Jones Jr., and a hint of Kelly Olynyk and you may just have enough to get up under his skin.

Lastly and most importantly, is this. LeBron James is a business man, story teller, and master marketer above all else.

He knows what kinds of storylines and narratives that a Heat v. Lakers Finals would drive. The full circle narrative is already swimming around in his head.

As I have no doubt that Shaq got this intel by way of LeBron’s camp, this is what he has to say. Knowing that the Celtics would be an easier matchup, knowing that the Miami Heat can match up with the Lakers, and knowing the narratives behind it all, that’s why this was said.

Is it true? That, I don’t believe to be so.

Either way though, we hope it happens. We need the Miami Heat, first though, to handle their business on Sunday.