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The NBA Finals are set: It's Lakers v Heat

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Bam Adebayo (c) and his Miami Heat teammates are through to the NBA Finals after beating Boston.
Camera IconBam Adebayo (c) and his Miami Heat teammates are through to the NBA Finals after beating Boston.

LeBron James vs. the Miami Heat.

Pat Riley vs. the Los Angeles Lakers.

Get ready for the NBA Finals - a title series like none other, to end a season like none other.

The match-up is set, with the Heat and the Lakers emerging as the last two teams standing in the chase to be crowned champions of the most tumultuous season in NBA history.

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Miami won the Eastern Conference title on Sunday night, finishing off the Boston Celtics in six games, a day after the Lakers won the Western Conference crown.

So, for the first time - excluding the league's inaugural season - two franchises that missed the playoffs the previous season will meet in the NBA Finals.

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Game 1 is Wednesday night at Walt Disney World.

"We know why I came here," Lakers All-Star forward Anthony Davis, whose first finals trip comes in his first LA season.

"We want to win a championship. We're four wins away, a step closer to our goal."

James is bidding for a fourth NBA championship, as well as a title with a third different franchise - and he's about to become the first player to win a Finals MVP award with one team and then face that same team in a future championship series.

His first two titles were with Miami in 2012 and 2013, the highlights of a four-year stint with the Heat that ended in 2014.

That, not coincidentally, was the last time the Heat had reached this stage.

But with a young core led by Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro, the veteran savvy of Goran Dragic and the addition a year ago of All-Star Jimmy Butler, the Heat got back to title contention quicker than anyone envisioned.

"To fit in here, you've just got to care about winning," Butler said earlier in this play-off run as his maiden apeparance in the Finals looms.

"That's the No.1 thing. Trying to win a championship.

"And we've got a group of guys that want that, night-in, night-out, every single day.

"There's only one goal in our mind, and that's to win it."

The Heat are now the only team who can boast six final appearances in the past 15 years, while the Lakers are in the decider for the first time in a decade.

James is chasing his fourth NBA championship. So are the Heat.

They stand four wins away - and in each other's way.

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