Quin: On Sept. 11, the Boston Celtics defeated the Toronto Raptors 92-87 to win the series 4-3. Combine the results from Friday night with the Miami Heats absolute throttling of the Milwakue Bucks and that will set up a thrilling match-up in the Eastern Conference Final. Chase how exactly do you see this series going between these two teams that have looked very good over their first two series? 

Chase: For me, I have the Heat winning this series but the question is will it be easy? Not at all, and this will probably be the most difficult match-up yet for the Heat and Jimmy Butler. The Heat have looked amazing through their first two series in sweeping the Pacers and nearly sweeping the No.1 seeded Bucks. However, the Celtics are an amazing group of athletes that do not rely on one guy too much. They have plenty of weapons in Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown and several successful bench pieces. They are equally matched throughout the lineup and the bench depth. I feel like this one will go down to the wire in a seven game series with neither team winning any of the games by more than 10 points.

Quin: As always I’d like to take this series game by game. In the opening game I have an easy Heat victory. They have had a couple of days to study both the Celtics and Raptors that the Celtics won’t have. Along with the fact that Miami will be better rested. I believe games two through four will be split 2-1 Heat giving them a 3-1 series lead. In game five the Celtics will have a heroic game to bring the series to 3-2. I believe that game six will be a nail biting game that ends in a Heat victory taking the series 4-2. However, even if Boston is to win game six I do not think they will have enough energy left in the tank to take game seven with Miami which would send the Heat to the NBA Finals. 

Chase: I have a similar lineup as well, however I believe the Celtics will go down two games to start before they win the next two. After that, it will be the Heat that wins the next followed by the Celtics grabbing Game 6. Game 7 will come down to the final few minutes where Jimmy Butler will voice his heroics and notch a 40-point game and lead the Heat to the NBA Finals. However, this is a huge talk in the NBA but even bigger talk is the Nuggets and the Clippers. After being up 3-1 over the Nuggets, the Clippers have lost the last two allowing Denver to push to a Game 7. This is the second series in a row that the Nuggets have come back after being down 3-1 in a series. This first series they won against Utah, can the Nuggets pull it out again?

Quin: What the Nuggets have done in both the series against Utah and this series with the Clippers has been beyond impressive. However, it is quite rare to see a team win a series when down 3-1 in the first place. To do it twice and the second time against an even more talented team would be close to impossible. That alone makes me think the Clippers will win game seven over Denver. This does not fare well for the Clippers though. This series along with the performance against Dallas leads me to believe that they will not be able to win the Western Conference Final over the Lakers if they continue to play like this. Their lack of finishing off opponents would leave too large of a room for error against a player like Lebron James. 

Chase: I initially said if the Nuggets came out sluggish, they would not win this series. Besides the first couple of games, they have looked outstanding and are playing wonderful basketball. I remember stating that the Nuggets could upset the Clippers, as well, in which I still think is possible. I feel like Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic are going to have incredible games with both posting 30+ points in the game and finishing the series. The sneaky player will be Michael Porter Jr., who helped close out Game 6 with his dagger shot against the Clippers. I still believe it will be Lakers v. Nuggets, and then the Lakers will move on to the Finals.

Quin: While it is most certainly probable that the Nuggets could take a win in game 7 I will have to continue to disagree with you on that as I have been riding the Lakers v. Clippers match-up since the bubble was announced. To move on to our final topic of the day we would like to take a look at three big match-ups from the Sept. 13 slate of NFL games. The Baltimore Ravens defeated the Cleveland Browns 38-6, the Los Angeles Rams defeated the Dallas Cowboys 20-17 and the New Orleans Saints defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaners 34-23. Chase, what do you make of these outcomes? 

Chase: I was really caught off guard by most of the NFL games that ensued on the thirteenth. The most insane game to watch for me was Tom Brady’s debut with Tampa Bay. They got down by over 17 points at one time during the game. After this offseason and the talk of how powerful this offense would be, it was a let down as a fan to watch Brady struggle as much as he did. Another let down was the Cowboys, who are in the same boat as the Bucs in supposed to be having a huge offensive powerhouse of a team but also lost to the Rams. This changes the landscape of the NFL for me, seeing how these teams struggled in the first week were hard to watch. The Ravens played like the Ravens should have, maybe a little over as well. Even though they have the reigning MVP, the overall game they played was incredible to watch and to hold such a good team like Browns to such minimal scoring is absurd. Overall, a great first week for the NFL but certain teams and franchises have a lot to prove going forward.

Quin: My biggest takeaway from these three games is the teams who are more likely to win early this year will be those who have almost the same rosters and coaching staffs. If you look at Dallas, Los Angeles and Cleveland none of them fit this description whereas their opponents do. When you watched the Tampa Bay game there were a lot of mistakes the Buccaners made that can simply be chalked up to a miscommunication between Brady and his wideouts. I would say it is too early to press the panic button for any of these teams that lost as it is only week one and they have a lot of kinks to work out of their respective rosters. I fully expect Tampa Bay to make the playoffs at the end of the year along with the Cowboys. That being said I would not be surprised if the Browns still find their way to January football as well. My other major takeaway from these games is that the Baltimore Ravens will be legit again in 2020 as they look even better than they did last year after really beefing up the front seven of their defense. 

Chase: The biggest question for me still is if the Buccaneers team is actually legit, I believe they will make the Playoffs as well but is Tom Brady a system QB like the world has been asking since he left the Patriots? He seemed just like that during their poor performance against the Saints on Sunday. Is he actually a franchise changing quarterback or was he just that good because of Belichicks system? These are questions I am still searching for as I continue to watch the rest of the Bucs season.

Quin: As are many other sports fans I am sure. I guess we’ll just have to watch and see where this season takes us. If you would like to share your opinion on our takes be sure to email Chase or me at [email protected] and [email protected].