NBA Finals Preview

Tim Baxter

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Golden State Warriors play the Utah Jazz in the 2007 NBA Playoffs.

Starting in October, the NBA began with 30 teams still in contention to win the championship. Then in April, it went down to 16. Now there are two teams remaining. From the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers and from the West, the Golden State Warriors.

The two teams will play on June 1 at 6:00 p.m. in the Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA. This will be the third year in a row that the Cavaliers and Warriors will face off in the NBA Finals. In 2015, the Warriors won the series 4-2. Last year, the Cavaliers won the series 4-3 after a miraculous comeback from being down 3-1. Last offseason, Golden State picked up free agent, Kevin Durant, leading to a loss of many bench players. The Warriors also lost two starters- Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut- last offseason to the Dallas Mavericks as well. On the Cavs side, they gained Deron Williams and Kyle Korver who shared the court together in Utah. Cleveland also lost Timofey Mozgov to the Los Angeles Lakers and Matthew Dellavedova to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Golden State has started the playoffs 12-0 leading up to the finals. They set a record for most consecutive wins to start an NBA playoffs. Cleveland came close, but fell to the Boston Celtics in game three of the Eastern Conference Finals giving them a 11-1 playoff record. In the first round, the Warriors faced off against the Portland Trailblazers, and Cleveland played the Indiana Pacers which they both swept. In the second round, Golden State swept the Utah Jazz and the Cavs swept the Washington Wizards. Finally, in their conference finals, the Cavs bested the Boston Celtics 4-1 and again, the Warriors swept the San Antonio Spurs.

Lebron James leads the Cavs in points per game with 32.3 while Stephen Curry leads the Warriors with 28.6 points per game. In rebounds, Kevin Love leads the Cavs with 10.4 and Draymond Green lead the Warriors with 8.7 boards. Lastly, Draymond and Lebron also lead their teams in assists, steals, and blocks. *All these stats are from the 2017 playoffs.