Boston Celtics: Ranking the five best dynamic duos amongst the top seeds in the east
By Mark Nilon
5) Miami Heat: Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo
The presence of Jimmy Butler in South Beach has made the Miami Heat feel like a legitimate playoff threat for the first time since the 2015-16 season when the duo of Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade ran the show.
The pairing of Butler and third-year big-man Bam Adebayo has the team on pace to win 48+ games, which would make it the first time the team has amassed or exceeded this total since the 2015-16 campaign.
This season, Butler has averaged 20.5, 6.8 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.7 steals & Adebayo has stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, 10.5 rebounds, five assists, 1.2 steals and 1.3 blocks on 56 percent shooting from the floor. With their impressive play, both were named All-Stars (Butler’s fifth, Adebayo’s first) and have the team looking like locks to the make the 2020 postseason.
The future seems bright for Miami with these two in tow. They’ll be a challenging duo to face once this year’s playoffs come around.
4) Toronto Raptors: Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam
When Kawhi Leonard opted to leave the Toronto Raptors after helping the franchise win their first championship in just one season up north, many believed 2019-20 would be quite a disappointing followup campaign, with some envisioning the team to miss out on the postseason altogether.
However, thanks in large to the team’s top two players, things have not panned out like a lot of people expected — in a good way!
With 19 games remaining on their schedule, the Raptors are realistically looking to be a top-3 seed in the Eastern Conference and, as things currently stand with their record of 45-18, hold the third-best record in the entire NBA.
Guiding Canada’s favorite team to these surprisingly great heights is Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam. Lowry managed to register his sixth straight All-Star nod, as he’s recorded averages of 19.5 points, 7.7 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals on 35 percent shooting from deep.
Siakam has followed up his Most Improved Player award-winning season with an equally if not more so worthy performance in 2020 as he is averaging 23.6 points, 7.5 boards, and a block per game on 46 percent shooting from the field and 36 percent shooting from 3.
Coming into the season, there was a massive Kawhi shaped hole on the wing for the Raptors. Siakam has filled it quite nicely to the look of a first of what should be many All-Star appearances.
As this season has shown us, the Toronto Raptors are capable of surprising us all. Lowry and Siakam (and yes, Nick Nurse, but we’re talking about dynamic duos here) are the two biggest reasons why.