It is no secret that it has been a very spicy Eastern and Western Conference finals where the last 4 best teams are still in contention for the ring, but both have already concluded just recently.

This timely issue has also been the content of a research conducted by Capstone-Intel Corporation, a private firm in the country dedicated to supplying high-impact research further improved by actionable intelligence.

Part of their study managed from a span of one month and from Facebook data from the Philippines. It was presented the number of performance keywords from each name of the NBA team that is in the Finals from the Nuggets, Lakers, Heat and Celtics.

In the overall engagements score, the Nuggets got the highest with 83,395.2. The next score was 65,995.3 for the Lakers.

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The surprising thing is – from my point of view – there is more engagement when the topic of conversation is the Denver Nuggets due to the Los Angeles Lakers simply being the most popular basketball team in the world. Perhaps this is due to the whole world being in tune with Nikola Jokic making a statement that even Lebron himself could not stop the inevitable.

The Nuggets top the list due to their sweep of the James-led Lakers who were simply outmatched by an unstoppable Nikola Jokic and an insane second scoring option at Jamal Murray. Murray, who expected a trade due to his lower value caused by injuries, erupted for 32.5 PPG for the whole series. James, who was visibly tired towards the end of Game 4, is still playing at a world-class level at 38. Some argued that the previous series (Lakers vs Warriors) was the real NBA Finals due to the Akron Curry-James connection. One thing is for certain Lebron will come back and fans will be praying that he even plays with his son Bronny.

In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Miami Heat beat out the Boston Celtics coming in from the 8th seed. Playoff Jimmy Butler is simply built differently from his peers and has carried his team on his back despite the absence of Sixth Man of the Year Tyler Herro.
Unexpected players (A.K.A. Dark Horses) stood up to the task for both teams such as Caleb Martin who scored 26 points in Game 6 or Derrick White who scored a 0.3 buzzer beater extending the series. The Boston Celtics, a strong contender for the NBA Championship having been to the finals last year, suddenly found themselves 0-3 down to the Erik Spoelstra-coached side. Teams are 0-149 when faced with this deficit, and the Boston Celtics in classic fashion like the serial chokers they are and roller-coaster like performances every single time, add to that number now.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown simply cannot come up with the goods when it matters and that is the talk of the town with Brown having 8 turnovers in Game 7. A pundit even said that he had worse handles than Russell Westbrook, famous for being clowned on by everyone due to his inefficient, losing playstyle. On his first drive of Game 7 Tatum injured his ankle immediately and that was very disheartening to the Boston faithful, with them getting blown out by the second half and it was clear that he was not at a hundred percent. People in the comments section will come up with different reasons why the Lakers and Celtics lost ramping up engagement and defending their own teams up to the point of delusion with everyone having a hot take of their own.

The Los Angeles Lakers vs Nuggets games in FB live would reach a concurrent 500,000+ live viewers (that includes me), millions if one adds livestreaming FB channels altogether and there are around 5 to 10 comments that show up every second in every livestream. However, one can note that this engagement might not be detected by the algorithm due to the FB Pages deleting the streamed games instantly due to copyright laws to avoid getting Zucced. They would also alter the pitch of the voices of the commentators due to the Meta.io bot being able to detect copyrighted audio.

It has been a wild 2023 playoffs that is for sure due to the unpredictable nature of the sport where dynasties have now crumbled, and everyone has a chance to win the chip. The Milwaukee Bucks, who were 2021 NBA Champions, were knocked out of the first round by the Heat then came the Knicks, who only had a surefire scoring option in Jalen Brunson due to Julius Randle forgetting how to play good let alone decent basketball, were outclassed by the deep rotation and star power of the Heat. An exciting NBA finals awaits the Heat and Nuggets fans around the world who pray everyday that their team may win. Social media will certainly cause a firestorm for the next few, intense days whoever the victor may be.