Cleveland Cavaliers – Golden State Warriors

Cleveland Cavaliers – The Cleveland Cavaliers have had an absolute rollercoaster of a season, I mean there really isn’t any other word that perfectly describes their road to the finals. The Cleveland Cavaliers started of the season full of hope and expectation after departing with Kyrie Irving but replacing him with what then was expected to be a superstar Isaiah Thomas and a very solid 3 and D guy in Jae Crowder, furthermore adding veterans such as Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade who are still very good NBA players. The Cavs came into the season as the heavy favourites to win the east with LeBron and what seemed like a team who on paper had the most talent in the NBA, yes even more than the Warriors. However things turned south real quick when they started of the season 5-7 losing to teams such as the Knicks and the Hawks on their own home floor and many people started to wonder what happened to this team, plus with Isaiah Thomas out early in the season, many expected D-Rose to be their starting point guard but he once again got hurt early in the season and that left Cleveland without their 2 point guards and a 5-7 start to the season.

LeBron James eventually had enough and went on an absolute tear leading the Cavs to a 13 game winning streak and a 18-1 record in a 19 game span which put them at a 2nd seed behind red hot Boston with a 23-8 record. Everything seemed fine at that point, Bron was beasting, his teammates were playing well, D-Wade was playing like a 6th man of the year favourite at that point, Kevin Love was having his best season as a cavalier averaging 20/10 at that point and the Cavs found a solution to their point guard putting Jose Calderon there and letting him play off ball which worked really well with LeBron James and most importantly during that stretch the Cavaliers were taking care of their main competition in the east, they had beat the Wizards twice, Celtics, Bucks, heat and the sixers twice so it seemed like they would eventually have another easy run in the East especially with Isaiah Thomas coming back which wasn’t the case.

The Cavaliers were looking great and they were ready to face the Warriors on Christmas and this is where their season would change. They would lose their Christmas matchup to the Warriors 92-99 and then would proceed to lose a few more games to the Kings and Jazz. After starting the season 24-12, the Cavaliers finally got their then called the All star Point Guard Isaiah Thomas back and everything looked great in his first game back, he scored an efficient 17 points and they put up 127 on a solid Portland team who are good defensively. Everyone thought the Cavs were legit after that night and well it ended up not being the case. Isaiah Thomas would eventually turn out a massive liability on defense for the already struggling defensively Cavs team and teams would expose that, the Cavs would lose by incredible margins to good teams, they had a 29 point loss to the T’Wolves, 34 pt loss to Toronto, they allowed OKC to put 148 on them on their own home court. They also went to lose to the Warriors again and Houston smacked them by 32 in Cleveland. This surely proved that these Cavs just didn’t click well enough and Isaiah Thomas throwing his team under the bus during post game interviews was more proof that he was one of the main problems on the team because he was getting destroyed on defense and was very inefficient on offense and his post game interviews alongside throwing the coach and Kevin love under the bus really summed up his career in Cleveland. The Cavs were 24-12 when IT returned, they ended up being 30-22 meaning they went 6-10 in the stretch where IT played and that led to changes.

The Cavaliers would go on to make deadline day trades, they would finally get rid of Isaiah Thomas alongside Frye for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance JR, and would trade D-Rose, Jae Crowder for Rodney Hood and they released D-Wade so he could go to Miami. With a new, younger, more athletic roster the expectations have risen right back up for Cleveland. Their first 2 games together were road wins at Boston and Oklahoma and many of course overreacted thinking they were ready to beat the Warriors and were better than they were with Kyrie, but the reality check was instant as they would go 5-7 in the next 12 games. However that was when Kevin Love returned and with Kevin back, the Cavs would go to finish the season very strong, they’d go 11-3 in the final 14 games. LeBron was playing at a very high level and the Cavs would essentially finish 50-32. After all that rollercoaster of a season they still managed to put up 50 wins and get the 4th seed. LeBron James averaged 27/8/9 in his 15th year. Absolutely ridiculous that after all of these things he still took the Cavs to a good record and the playoffs.

THE PLAYOFFS:

The Cavs would go on to face the Indiana Pacers in the first round. Many thought this wasn’t going to be a series and the Cavs would breeze by the Pacers, however that absolutely wasn’t the case. The Pacers took the Cavs to 7. The young pacers showed the whole NBA that they were a better team and with a rising star Oladipo, they proved everyone that they are no joke. The only problem for the Pacers was that the Cavs had LeBron. The Cavaliers were literally carried by LeBron in this series, other than Korver, the supporting cast did not play well. Kevin Love played below standards, Jordan Clarkson was a no show, Rodney Hood managed to lose rotation minutes, George Hill was hurt although he did give them huge mins in Game 7, Larry Nance lost rotation minutes and Tristan Thompson didn’t even play until late of the series, where he eventually came through big in Game 7. LeBron James put up ridiculous stats In this series carrying the Cavs, he had to drop 40+ three times and had to hit a game winner to give them a 3-2 series lead. Bron would proceed to drop 45-9-7 in Game 7 to put the Cavs through to ECSF.

In the ECSF The Cavs would face the 59 win team Toronto Raptors. This was the first time in a decade where LeBron was an underdog going into a playoff series in the east. Many thought Toronto would overcome LeBron and it didn’t happen. In Game 1 LeBron didn’t even play well, but the supporting cast showed up, JR Smith Korver Love made shots, they were playing great throughout the whole series, in Game 2 LeBron put up a fadeaway shot show hitting SEVEN ridiculous fadeaways demoralising Toronto, in Game 3 LeBron again destroyed them, and when Toronto made a run, Bron hit a game winner. In Game 4 it was no contest the Cavs won by 35. With LeBron demoralising Toronto and the supporting cast showing up it seemed like the Cavs were back to normal and would be ready to dominate the ECF and make the Finals easily.

In the ECF, the Cavs face a young super talented Boston team. However Boston had no Kyrie or Hayward so It seemed like LeBron and his cast would take care of the young Celtics. However the Celtics shocked everybody by blowing the Cavs out in Game 1 by 25 and then beating them by 13 in Game two even after Bron dropped 42/10/12. Right away the Cavs supporting cast got the blame put on them again and with a potential sweep facing them they had to respond and they did winning Games 3 and 4 and tying the series 2-2 at home. They’d lose Game 5 in Boston but would respond in Game 6 after a ridiculous 46 point performance by LeBron. In Game 7 it looked like boston would win when they got away early, but the Cavs made a run and won. LeBron was sensational with 35/15/9 again, but the others finally showed up in Boston, Jeff Green dropped 19, JR Smith made some threes, Tristan played well and with a bit of help LeBron was able to pull of one of the greatest achievements of his career which is taking these Cavs to the FINALS. I mean if you look at everything they faced and to still make the finals it’s incredible. I doubt anyone else could’ve taken this group to the Finals.

Golden State Warriors – The Golden State Warriors road to the finals was less chaotic, but it was crazy nevertheless. Their regular season was quite straight forward. They came into the season as favourites to repeat again. They pretty much kept their core, except tweaking their bench a little by letting go of Ian Clark and signing Nick Young and Omri Casspi. Casspi got released eventually. The Warriors started the season doing what they normally do, dominating teams, however they got hit with an injury bug through the whole season. Steph Curry got hurt early in the year in December but it wasn’t serious and KD/KLAY/DRAYMOND managed to hold it up for the Warriors until he returned. By Christmas GSW Were 26-7 and on Christmas they beat the Cavs to go 27-7 and a few days later Curry returned and everything went back to normal. Warriors continued to dominate the league and went into the all star break 44-14 , but they got overtaken by Houston for the 1st seed which didn’t really matter. The Warriors came back from the all star break blowing out teams, winning 7 straight to go to 51-14, however Steph Curry got injured again and they would start to struggle. That Curry injury was the beginning of the injury bug as it eventually would spread through the whole team. The Warriors would go on to lose KD Klay and Draymond all in a span of a few days and that would mean they’d have to play without all of their 4 stars for a few games until Steph returned and got hurt in the same game and the injury was serious, he was out for 2 months which gave the warriors a cause to pause and realise that this year may not be theirs. They would go 3-7 in a 10 game stretch and their stars were unhealthy and the 1st seed was out of reach. The Warriors would eventually get KD Draymond and Klay before the playoffs, but didn’t really play too well going into it. They would still finish the season 58-24 with a 2nd seed. Which is quite impressive considering the injuries they had to deal with. During this stretch a point guard Quinn Cook would emerge as a really good point guard and would put up some good scoring displays while Curry was out.

THE PLAYOFFS:

In the NBA playoffs the Warriors would face the Spurs in Round 1. Steph Curry missed the whole series so the Warriors could count themselves lucky because they could’ve easily faced Utah Oklahoma or New Orleans which would’ve been much tougher. The Warriors were expected to dominate San Antonio in round 1 because they had no Kawhi and without him their offense purely relied on Aldridge and that’s just not enough against Golden State. The Warriors would quickly seize the lead in Game 1 and they would dominate the Spurs. KD and Klay looked great. In Game 2 the spurs were more competitive but GS went on a crazy 3rd quarter run as they always do, Klay went off again, KD dominated from mid range. In Game 3 same happened again, in Game 4 they did lose surprisingly to some, but the Warriors would close it in Game 5 with KD scoring 12 straight points to put the Spurs away who did put up a great fight in the end. It wasn’t quite a straight forward series but Golden State did win in 5. Klay KD Draymond looked great and they were ready to get Steph back for Round 2 against New Orleans.

In Round 2 they would face a new orleans team who looked really dangerous with Playoff Rondo, Holiday and AD. The Warriors would dispatch them too but it wasn’t as easy as it looked. In Game 1 they dominated and in Game 2 Curry returned. The Warriors would be put to a test in game 2 only winning by 5, but Curry’s return gave them the spark they needed to hold off the Pelicans. Steph scored 28 in his return. In Game 3 the Warriors got blown out but in Game 4 they returned the favour setting up an elimination Game 5 at Oracle. The Pelicans put up a great fight nearly coming back from down 26 but the Warriors proved too much with Steph back rolling, KD dominating and Klay being on fire the Warriors looked unstoppable. They beat the Pelicans in 5.

In the conference Finals the Warriors faced the biggest threat they’ve ever faced with the big 4. The Houston Rockets took them to 7 Games and the Warriors were really lucky to advance, there have been so many unexpected factors that led to them winning, but hey a champion will always get a bit of luck. They won Game 1 and everything looked normal, then lost Game 2 in Houston but they came back to Oracle with series 1-1 ant unlikely to lose. They won Game 3 by 41 and as soon as everyone counted out the rockets they responded with 2 wins putting the Warriors on the brink of elimination. However this is where the Warriors started to get lucky. Chris Paul would miss both Games 6 and 7, furthermore Houston blew back to back double digit leads (17 then 15) in these games and in Game 7 Houston managed to miss a playoff all time high 27 straight threes.. What a game to pick to do that. And even then they were in with a chance to beat the Warriors. Also Game 7 was very controversial due to missed calls on Harden’s threes and Warriors screens, but hey as I’ve said, luck is part of the game and if you get the calls, injuries and crazy things such as 27 missed threes then you’re destined to be in the FINALS. Warriors beat Houston in 7, KD and Steph had their legacy defining games in Game 7.

THE RIVALRY SO FAR

As I’ve already said this is the 4th straight year these franchises meet in the NBA FINALS. This in my eyes is the biggest rivalry of the 2010s decade. We’ve seen so many legacy defining moments, teams having to break up or improve because of one another. Let’s begin with 2015. The 2015 NBA Finals was the 1st time these teams met and everyone favoured the then what was the baby Warriors as it was their first time. Warriors got very fortunate that year, not only that the Cavs had no Kevin Love but Kyrie Irving went out in Game 1 too and GSW took a 1-0 lead. People thought it’d be a sweep but LeBron James have managed to take his guys to the next 2 wins. The Cavs took a 2-1 series lead with Dellavedova and Mozgov as LeBron’s biggest help which was beyond ridiculous. However LeBron would run out of gas and Mozgov and Delly’s games would fall off in the end. The Warriors proved too much with the insertion of Iguodala back into the starting lineup and with Steph going off in games 4-6 the Warriors came back and won in 6. Iguodala controversially won the Finals MVP, which could’ve easily been given to Steph who averaged 25/5/6. However It’s understandable why Iggy won it as he made the biggest impact.

Let’s move on to the following year. This was the craziest finals series between the two franchises. With The Warriors and Cavs both healthy we had an insane series. Warriors however would go on to lose Bogut to an injury and Draymond Green to a suspension for one game which game Cleveland the momentum back and was huge in them Winning the series. This series went to 7, this was the infamous Finals Series where the Warriors blew the 3-1 LEAD. The Warriors had a 73-9 season, Steph was the unanimous MVP and were destined to go and finish it all off with a championship. However Bron Kyrie and the co has other plans. After the Warriors took the 3-1 lead, LeBron went on the greatest 3 game elimination game tear of all time. Dropping back to back 41 point games and a 27 point triple double in Game 7 including that legendary block on Iguodala and huge 6 points which allowed the Cavs to take the lead mid 4th after the Warriors went on a run. The Series went all the way down to the wire with the game tied 89-89 with a minute and that was when Kyrie drained the clutchest shot I’ve ever seen. He hit a 3 right between Steph’s eyes and gave the Cavs a 3 point lead. They’d go on to win 93-89 and beat the 73-9 Warriors with the unanimous MVP in 7. Curry was tragic in that series and his greatness was questioned.

In 2017 the Warriors added KD and made the NBA simply unfair. With KD the Warriors would dominate the Cavs in these finals. They won the Series in 5. The only Cavs win was when they shot historically from deep making a finals record 24 threes, otherwise the Warriors pretty much dominated the Finals, winning Games 1 and 2 by 20+ and Game 5 by 9. Game 3 was really where everything had a chance to change with Cleveland coming so close to winning it, but Kevin Durant hit the biggest shot of his career over LeBron to give GSW a 3-0 series lead. They’d eventually win in 5. KD won his first ring and FMVP averaging 35/8/5, Steph averaged 27/8/9. It was a ridiculous display by both of them and they were too much for Cleveland. And now in 2018 It seems like the talent difference is even bigger than it was last year. So it’s highly unlikely we’ll see something different