The Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors will both be trying to deliver a championship to their title-starved fans when the NBA Finals open this week with a mouth-watering matchup between two of the game’s best players.
While the Warriors last won a title for the city of Oakland in 1975, the city of Cleveland has not celebrated a championship since the 1964 Cleveland Browns of the National Football League.
Both the Warriors and Cavaliers will be leaning on their respective most valuable players to restore glory, and though Stephen Curry took home the league’s top player award this year LeBron James still wears the unofficial crown.
What four-time MVP James has accomplished with this season’s Cavaliers team is one of his greatest feats and has returned him to the NBA Finals for the fifth consecutive year, a feat not accomplished since 1966.
With his key sidekicks either sidelined or hobbled, James has averaged 27.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 8.3 assists during the post-season.
The Warriors’s 40-year wait to return to the Finals has come at a physical price.
Curry, averaging 29.2 points during the postseason, took a violent fall in the Western Conference final and has not appeared quite the same since.
Working in the Warriors favour is that Thursday’s Game One will have given each team seven days, which is the longest gap in history between the end of the conference finals and start of the Finals.
Rust could be an issue for both sides and the job of preparation will fall on the shoulders of a pair of first-year head coaches.
Golden State’s Steve Kerr and Cleveland’s David Blatt give the Finals two rookie NBA coaches for the first time since the league’s inaugural season (1946-47).
The two have taken divergent paths to get here, however.
The schedule:
Game 1 (June 4) & Game 2 (June 7) at Golden State; Game 3 (June 9) & Game 4 (June 11) at Cleveland.
If needed: Game 5 (June 14, Golden State), Game 6 (June 16, Cleveland) and Game 7 (June 19, Golden State).
