Plenty of things have been written about both conference finals, of which I have little to add. What struck me was that many of us had OKC and Miami meeting in the Finals at the beginning of the season, but midway through both the Western and Eastern series most of us thought that was unlikely to happen - and then both OKC and Miami dramatically turned it around. In each case it felt odd.
When we think about it, the Heat-Celtics series' narrative felt strange, but isn't all that surprising when we step back a little. Boston is a great defensive team, the best in the league, and possess fantastic chemistry. They also are well-coached and have been one of the more resilient squads in recent memory. In short, they maximize their (somewhat limited) talent. The Heat meanwhile are poorly coached and have poor chemistry. They rarely seem to actualize their considerable talent, particularly offensively. So the fact this series went seven is not really all that shocking, it just felt weird because of the extreme ebbs and flows the series had throughout.
On the other hand, Spurs-Thunder was one of the craziest series I have ever witnessed. I have never seen a fantastic team (playing so, so well) win the first two games convincingly - and then proceed to get swept. I mean it was stunning. It is very easy now to say the Thunder simply were the better team, but if you watched the Spurs play those first two games it ceases to make a lot of sense. The Spurs to the naked eye seemed rather easily to be the best team in basketball. And then OKC beat them four straight times. This happens directly after the Spurs went undefeated for fifty days.
The Western Finals were truly crazy. Part of me wants to use the lockout as an explanation for such a dramatic turn in that series, but that seems farfetched. We also can use the explanation that San Antonio just got too tired as the series became prolonged, but I don't honestly buy that either. The truth is sometimes you just can't predict what will happen when two damn good teams meet in the playoffs. And so we end up with the Finals matchup most of us expected, and then did not expect at all. Heat-Thunder. I could give you a prediction, but it wouldn't mean much after what I just said. Enjoy.