The Warriors' smooth moving, exciting offense of the past has been interrupted by Kevin Durant's score-first presence and their travels throughout the West have proved interesting if not entirely concerning. I mean... they haven't even swept anyone yet! With two gentlemanly sweeps of the Kawhi & Pop-less Spurs and the Rubio-less Jazz, Golden State was still the underdog (seeding-wise) as the Houston Rockets had a much more consistent regular season and held the home-court advantage. That advantage was not fully utilized however, as they fell in love with the three-point shot in a way the Rockets have done successfully many times before and missed 27 consecutive shots from downtown. Even with that ridiculous cold streak, it's still a mystery how differently this season could have been had Chris Paul not sat out game seven with an injured hamstring (game six was a lost cause). Once again, through luck and a ridiculous advantage in overall talent, the Warriors are the Western Conference representatives in the 2018 Finals.
The Cavaliers' ride has been just as weird with extra dramatics. The NBA's greatest player ever, Lebron James, finally managed to play all 82 games after the NBA modified it's schedules for fewer back-to-back nights of games and Cleveland needed every game from him or else they probably should have not had home-court advantage at any point this postseason due to how terrible their defense played all year long. Swapping out a bunch of washed-up defenders like Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, Jae Crowder and Isaiah Thomas for younger yet somewhat experienced guys like Jordan Clarkson, Rodney Hood and George Hill still left them with little to no defense. The Cavaliers' first round seven-game series over the Pacers showed just how far this team had to improve before they could become a championship-caliber roster. The Raptors, much like Drake, may have garnered all the recognition in the world on their ways to the top (#1 seed in the East) but, both have taken nothing but L's since as the Cavaliers swept them aside, getting Dwane Casey fired in the process. The Eastern Conference Finals sure was less of a mismatch than some (*coughs* me) predicted as the shorthanded Celtics lost one of the ugliest seven-game series' of this decade by putting up brick after brick in their loss to the suddenly defensive Cavs. Can the Cavs carry some of Lebron's load and play defense against one of the greatest lineups ever assembled? Let's look back at their previous three matches before I grab on prematurely to a conclusion.
2015 NBA Finals: Warriors in 6
The Warriors were fresh faced and fun as hell with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson making 200+ threes under new guidance in first-year head coach Steve Kerr. Lebron was in his first season back with the Cavaliers after a two-ring detour in Miami and was thirsty for his first championship in Cleveland. Kevin Love was already out with a separated shoulder so, things were not going to be easy, much like Lebron's runner-up finish in his first season in Miami. The Cavaliers lost in overtime in game one and the news only got worse from there as all-star point guard Kyrie Irving suffered a season-ending knee injury, thus making their big three (James-Kevin Love-Irving) a big one under first-year head coach David Blatt. Despite a supporting cast of misfits (Matthew Dellavedova, Shawn Marion, Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert & J.R. Smith), the Cleveland Lebrons took a 2-1 series lead that was as hard to believe as it was easy to erase once Kerr made the adjustments to have Andre Iguodala play the most clutch basketball of his life, leading to a 4-2 Warriors victory. Iguodala won MVP despite not being one of the three best players on his own team (Yes, Curry and Thompson had their weaknesses but, Draymond Green was awesome here) and guarding the actual deserving series MVP in Lebron (35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game). Golden State was a feel-good story with their first rings in 40 years.
Entertainment value: C+
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| Ronald Martinez/Getty Images |
Revenge is a story as old as time and what sweeter revenge than the type that creates the meme to end all basketball memes (or at least, it made the NBA the most meme-friendly league) in "Don't Let ____ distract you from the fact that the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals". Despite Golden State retaining their roster from the previous season and having reached even further heights during a record-breaking statistical season (Curry crushed the single-season 3-pointers made record and the team went an NBA record 73-9), Cleveland was more prepared than the previous season with a healthy big three (James-Irving-Love). This was especially weird considering they had replaced coach David Blatt after 1.5 seasons with former NBA player Tyronn Lue. After an early 2-1 lead, Golden State won game four despite Draymond Green losing his mind and hitting Lebron's groin. That one technical foul by Draymond Green ended up becoming one of the all-time NBA "What if?" moments. The Cavaliers turned things around after Green missed game five and Andrew Bogut suffered a series-ending injury. It wasn't all Draymond's fault as he had a career-best game seven with 32 points, 15 rebounds and 9 assists but, it was still all Green's fault because... what if he had played game five? Do the Warriors win in 5? Do they not need Kevin Durant then? Is KD a Celtic? Would either of these two teams be back this season? It's still unbelievable to think about. Lebron got his third and most important ring as Cleveland won their first sports championship in 52 years. Lebron is 3-for-3 in winning Finals MVPs in series' he's won.
Entertainment Value: A+
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| Gene J. Puskar/AP |
2017 NBA Finals: Warriors in 5
"The Hardest Road" wasn't so difficult to maneuver after all. Kevin Durant joined a team that had won 73 games in the regular season and was one dick punch away from winning back-to-back championships and they somehow still managed to lose a game in Cleveland during this series. It actually took Cleveland an 86-point half of basketball in game four in order to avoid a sweep and that was when they still had Kyrie Irving (who dropped 40 in game four). Durant certainly earned his first championship ring by leading the Warriors in scoring in all five games but still, the average NBA fan just rolled their eyes at what should be an all-time great player's greatest moment. In the year of the triple-double, Lebron averaged a triple-double and still lost the Finals MVP to Durant (certainly more understanding than the Iguodala case but, one hell of a battle). Simply adding Kyle Korver was not enough to turn the Cavaliers into the Warriors so, they started to tear things down in the ensuing year by letting go of GM David Griffin and hiring Koby Altman to the same position.
Entertainment Value: D
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| USA TODAY Sports |
So, what's changed since last year? The Cavaliers are somewhat younger and certainly more inexperienced with Cedi Osman, Rodney Hood, George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, Jeff Green and Larry Nance Jr. replacing Kyrie Irving, Channing Frye, Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson, Deron Williams and Derrick Williams. Meanwhile, the Warriors have yet to put together a full four quarters of consistent dominance together because they just don't seem to care as much as every other playoff team has and yet, they can afford not to care which is what makes them so frustrating. It's not that they are good, it's that they've gone from being a fun watch to a completely different, less compelling watch than they've been in years. Nothing was more fun than watching Curry and Thompson hit ridiculous three after ridiculous three and the passes this team made leading to those shots were incredible as well. Now, it's too much lanky Kevin Durant-focused basketball. He isn't spreading the ball around enough and while I'm sure Steve Kerr is keeping that in the team's back pocket until their backs are up against the wall, it's at least a tiny bit concerning that this team can just continue to rely on KD scoring 30 per game and sweep an ugly Cavaliers team to conclude this NBA season. Despite them not playing their most successful style of basketball, they might not even need to. At least give us some all-time bloopers from Nick Young, J.R. Smith and JaVale McGee and I'll be happy.
Final Prediction: Pusha T in 4. yugghck!
Finals Prediction: Warriors in 5.
MVP: Stephen Curry.
