Was this even a surprise people. Did you really think that anyone else other than those two teams were going to be in the Finals this year. Well it wasn’t easy for either squad, since both survived Game 7’s this weekend, but we have our fourth helping of the NBA’s best current rivalry.
I like LeBron and have been a Cavs fan since 2014, but even I know this is a daunting task. Any team that has four All-Stars in Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant will be no pushover. If LeBron beats them, this will be his greatest accomplishment yet.
For those of you that need a refresher, the Warriors won the 2015 Finals (but the Cavs were undermanned without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love so that one doesn’t really count), and they won the 2017 Finals when they added Kevin Durant after he defected from Oklahoma City. Cleveland won the 2016 Finals despite being down 3-1 to the Golden State Warriors, winning in 7 games. Each Finals has a Finals MVP and here’s who won it each year of the rivalry:
2015: Andre Iguodala (Warriors)
2016: LeBron James (Cavaliers)
2017: Kevin Durant (Warriors)
The Cavs tried an offseason trade in 2017 sending Kyrie Irving to the Celtics for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and the Brooklyn Nets 2018 first-round draft pick. Thomas unfortunately proved to be quite useless, and in 2018 he became a part of a midseason trade where the Cavs got George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, Rodney Hood and Larry Nance Jr. Believe it or not the Cavs also signed Dwayne Wade and Derrick Rose during the offseason, but they got traded away as well.
That roster proved to be a much better fit, but the Cavs did have to survive a grueling seven-game series against the Indiana Pacers in the first round, and another one against the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Warriors on the other hand had to survive a brutal seven-game series against the Houston Rockets in their Western Conference Finals.
My Pick: Cavs in six
Everyone is picking the Warriors, but I can’t help but to think to two years ago when the Cavaliers had that massive upset against Golden State, and that 2011 Finals upset where the Dallas Mavericks were able to beat a LeBron James Miami Heat team. This is so crazy it might just work.
Categories: NBA