The rematch that has long been anticipated—since June fourth last year—is finally here. The unanimous MVP and the greatest player of this era of NBA basketball going against each other once again. Will the Warriors solidify their spot in history as one of the greatest teams of all time?
There’s no question as to whether LeBron will be determined to prevent himself from falling to an abysmal 2-5 in the Finals for his career as he heads to his— and James Jones'— six straight Finals. With a healthy Kyrie Irving and a Kevin Love who’s been playing up to his ability there’s no reason why the Cavaliers can’t win their first championship in franchise history. They’ve breezed through the Eastern conference, as everyone believed they would with an average margin of victory of 16.5 points in their twelve wins this postseason. This Cleveland team is beginning to look just as good as any of the four teams LeBron had while he was in Miami. They are peaking at the right time as Kevin Love shot just under 60 percent in games five and six against Toronto and Kyrie Irving is averaging 24.3 points per game this postseason. As long as everyone continues to play their role and come up big with clutch shooting from guys like J.R. Smith and Channing Frye it won’t be easy for Golden State to take them down two years in a row.
The Warriors, as we all know, are coming off of the best regular season in NBA and just completed a 3-1 series comeback in the conference finals, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since the Celtics did so in 1981. They were able to take advantage of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook shooting only 40 percent from the field in games five, six, and seven. The key for Golden State in these finals will be whether they can contain LeBron, Irving and Love.
LeBron averaged 36 points in the six games of last year’s finals and you’d have to think that even if he can give the Cavs a fraction of that this year they should be in good shape. Golden State will need big time defending from Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green because of the many scoring options Cleveland brings to the table. There’s no question as to whether Steph Curry or Klay Thompson will continue their miraculous shooting. Thompson broke a playoff record with 11 threes in game six while Curry broke his own record Monday night with the most threes (7) ever in a game seven.
With what they’ll have to overcome ahead, a title would put the Warriors on the same level as the ’95-’96 Bulls. With LeBron determined to finally win a championship in Cleveland with one of the most well rounded teams he’s been on in his 13 year career we’re in for yet another great series in what has been a spectacle of a postseason to this point.
