After what many people would call a fairly lacklustre playoffs series so far, the 2017 NBA Finals have arrived and as expected, we are getting the third instalment of the now historic Cleveland vs Golden State rivalry.
The Warriors blew past San Antonio in four games in the Western Conference Finals after Kawhi Leonard went down with an injury in the third quarter of Game 1 and didn’t return for the rest of the series. Golden State showed some vulnerability in the first game, going down by 23 points to San Antonio before the injury to Leonard de-railed any hopes the Spurs had of winning.
That half-game stretch will give some confidence to the Cavaliers, much like Cleveland’s awful Game 3 against Boston will do for the Warriors. While they dominated Boston in the four games they won, Cleveland underperformed in Game 3 against a Celtics team sans Isaiah Thomas, but both teams will get a full week off before the finals begin and should be completely healthy.
Cleveland were able to overcome a 3-1 deficit against the Warriors in last year’s finals to win their first Championship in franchise history and LeBron James’ 3rd in five years. The win also tied the Warriors-Cavaliers rivalry at 1-1 in the finals going into Round 3 starting this Saturday.
Since the loss last year, the Warriors main source of confidence has obviously been the signing of Kevin Durant which preceded a league leading 67-15 regular season record. However, an extremely underrated aspect leading into this series is the acquisitions that the Cavs have made throughout the regular season. Deron Williams and Kyle Korver have added a great deal of offence to the Cavs bench while the Warriors bench is arguably worse than last year.
Luckily for the Warriors, they probably won’t play one minute throughout the finals where at least two of their big four in Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green on the floor. The Cavs have a lot more talent on their bench to call upon and arguably more shooting in Williams, Korver, Channing Frye and Iman Shumpert.
The Cavs main issue is dealing with the Golden State ‘death’ lineup, where Draymond Green moves to the centre position and Andre Igoudala comes in to finish games. Kevin Love will have to have a series to remember to try to keep up with Green if he is to play crunch time minutes or we could possibly see LeBron playing at the centre position at times.
Either way, Cleveland’s 3pt shooting will determine who wins this series. If they can keep up with Golden State offensively I give them a massive chance at winning, especially since LeBron has shown the ability to stem Durant’s influence on offence in the past. For me, LeBron is the best player in the world playing arguably the best basketball of his career at the moment, which is so hard to bet against.
TIP: Cleveland to win the NBA Championship - $3.20 at Sportsbet
Depending on how the Warriors approach guarding LeBron, if they double him lots, he could be in store for a few games where he plays as more of a distributor. We saw him go for just 11 points in game three of the Boston series so we think a bet on Kevin Durant to be the series top scorer could be a decent play.
TIP: Kevin Durant series top scorer - $4.40 at Sportsbet
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