The Los Angeles Lakers may have been eliminated from the NBA Playoffs by the eventual champion Denver Nuggets, but Skip Bayless believes it would've been a different story if they met the Miami Heat once more in the NBA Finals.

The Purple and Gold, led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, met a Nuggets team that was unlike the one they faced in the 2020 bubble. This team was more experienced, was much deeper, and above all, was hungry. They were led by the all-time great Serbian center Nikola Jokic and a motivated Jamal Murray, who looked to have a redemption year after tearing his ACL.

The Lakers had made a deep run of their own, entering the playoffs as the seventh seed after a 2-10 start, until a trade in February that involved moving Russell Westbrook and acquiring D'Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura changed everything. They defeated the Memphis Grizzlies in six, then outlasted the Golden State Warriors, last year's champs, before being steamrolled by the Nuggets in a sweep.

They simply had no answer for Denver's size, experience, and overall team chemistry. A mind-blowing performance by LeBron in Game 4 couldn't even provide the city of Los Angeles a glimmer of hope. But if by some chance the Lakers did get past the Nuggets, Skip Bayless believes they would've been the one to come out on top against the Heat:

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The Heat also had a revamped roster after the 2020 bubble, the notable piece being Kyle Lowry, but their main core duo of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo was still present.

Like the Lakers, the Heat was a team that had to claw their way from the bottom half of the playoff picture to make a deep run; starting with winning the eighth seed in the Play-In Tournament, before upsetting the Milwaukee Bucks, eliminating the New York Knicks, and avenging their loss in last year's Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics. They're the second eighth-seeded team to ever make it to the NBA Finals since the Knicks in 1999.

The only difference between the two is that one made it to the Finals, another didn't. But if a rematch were to be seen between them, Skip believes it's the Lakers that would've come out on top.