Cavs-Warriors trilogy picks up where it left off

However, with Lue and James at the helm, the Cavaliers became the first team in National Basketball Association history to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win the championship.

This will be the third straight year Golden State and Cleveland have met in the NBA Finals.The 2017 National Basketball Association playoffs have been kind of a dud up until this point, but that’s in large part to the dominance of these two teams.

The Oakland Raiders are sending their best wishes to the Golden State Warriors via a full-page advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle as the Dubs get set to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday in Game 1 of the 2017 NBA Finals.

Q. I said it seems like somehow Tristan Thompson was neutralized tonight. “You can feel that redemption”.

“But you just have that in the back of your mind”. “You can’t get discouraged”. “Our fans definitely feel that way”. The problem for them though is that last year’s championship team is not good enough to win it this year.

“Obviously not really dealing with any bumps or bruises really besides this elbow that’s not really a factor”, Curry said. “You use it as fuel”. Don’t take this Cavs team, especially LeBron James, for granted because they have a chance to cement themselves as one of the best teams in National Basketball Association history in the next couple weeks.

“On the eve of one of the greatest events we have in sports, race and what’s going on comes again”, James said. If it took a Herculean effort from James a year ago, how could he possibly do it again against a better Warriors team?

COACH LUE: Yeah, once we got down, we chose to go to the offensive lineup, the offensive unit. He has a very good dog named Rocco.

Cleveland and Golden State can now settle a great debate and that is which team has the biggest reason to complain about the finals they lost.

But mindful of how the Cavaliers and Warriors went a combined 24-1 in the playoffs before colliding in The Finals, Silver says “we should also celebrate excellence”.

And familiarity has most assuredly bred contempt as well as respect on both sides.

“We have a veteran team”, Brown said.

Draymond Green, the Warriors’ nominal power forward, is a perennial candidate for Defensive Player of the Year and the Warriors’ most important player.

Even if he puts up fantastic numbers, James will bear the burden of failure if Golden State wins the championship. He took some flak for it early from the outside noise but I just thought he was intent on making sure he was playing his best ball late.

Cleveland’s offensive mastery has led it to a 12-1 straight-up, 8-4-1 against the spread record in the playoffs that would garner a lot more attention in any other season.

“When you’re chasing greatness, that’s the expectation”. For us that’s the goal anyway, to try to build a dynasty and be great each and every time we step on the floor. “Do we need to deal with all that?”

“He’s pretty sharp”, said player development coach Bruce Fraser, who passes to Curry daily. “Uncharacteristic with the number of guys that turned the ball over, but we have to credit those guys for creating some of the turnovers”. At the end of the day, the goal is to win a championship, and whoever’s in front of you, you have to beat that squad.

That means poise under pressure and handling the emotions of the moment. Kyrie Irving, a short-term Dukie, is their point guard. “But the quicker you settle into your surroundings, the better you’ll be”.

Tyron Lue, Head Coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“I know I’ve grown as a player just through experience from the last five years, but if I don’t go out there and execute, none of that matters”, Durant said.

“Everything that happened in the past, it happened and I learned from it and hopefully it makes me better this time around”. And the only thing that we should be hoping for now is that both teams perform at full strength.