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Key: Let the Games Begin
The time for talking is just about over as the two most dominant teams in each Conference square off for the third straight season when the 2017 Finals tip off on Thursday night in Oakland.
Both teams come into the contest on a major roll. Cleveland dropped just a single contest in reaching their fourth NBA Finals in franchise history; Golden State not only came through the Western Conference bracket unblemished, they’ve dropped just one game of any kind since March 14, winning 27 of 28.
Aside from their Game 3 hiccup at The Q, the Wine & Gold mauled the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals – beating them by an average of 30 points in Boston, not allowing them to take a home lead at any point in the series. The Wine & Gold have won nine straight Playoff road contests – second-longest streak in NBA history – dating back to Game 5 of the 2016 Finals, when the Cavaliers did the unthinkable, handing Golden State three straight losses, including two back here at Oracle Arena.
The three-time combatants have split their two-game series this year – with the Wine & Gold winning a Christmas Day thriller, rallying from two TDs down in a classic at The Q before being trounced in Oakland, wrapping up a West Coast roadie on MLK Day.
Key: King of the Road
Although this is the title trilogy – the first time it’s happened in any professional sport in over 60 years – there’s one major difference between this year’s matchup and the previous two, and that is obviously Kevin Durant.
The 2017 Finals will be his second trip –having faced (and lost to) LeBron James and the Heat as a member of the Thunder in 2012.
In his first year having bolted for the Bay, Durant averaged 25.1 points on a career-best 54 percent from the floor. Despite missing 19 games, Durant was named All-NBA Second Team. The 10th-year forward – drafted 2nd overall by the Sonics in 2007 – fit in seamlessly in his first year with the Warriors, netting career-highs in shooting, blocks and boards.
Although there’s sure to be cross-matching all over the floor throughout the series, for the sake of Keys, let’s go with the matchup of Durant against LeBron (although Number 23 will definitely see plenty of Draymond Green).
James comes into the Finals playing some of – if not the -- best basketball of his career, coming off a game in which he won the Eastern Conference for the seventh straight year and broke the NBA Playoff scoring record on the same night.
LeBron nearly single-handedly led the Cavs to the East title in 2015 with a herculean performance for the ages and last year he finished the job – leading Cleveland in every major statistical category – averaging 29.7 points, 11.3 boards, 8.9 assists, 2.57 steals and 2.29 blocks per contest – winning MVP honors and killing a curse that lasted over half-a-decade.
What can the 13-time All-Star do for an encore? There doesn’t seem to be another level of greatness that he can reach – but 14 years into his future Hall of Fame career, the King continues to raise the bar.
Key: Power-Point Presentation
There’s a spot on the floor of Oracle Arena that both Cavalier and Warrior fans will always remember: the spot where Kyrie Irving stepped back and drilled the game-winning bomb with 53 seconds to play that gave Cleveland the 92-89 lead and eventually Cleveland’s first Championship in 52 long years.
In the seven-game classic, Irving averaged 27.1 points per – with he and LeBron becoming the first duo since Elgin Baylor and Jerry West in 1963 to average at least 27.0 ppg in the Finals, punctuating that point in Game 5, when he and James notched 41 points apiece in a do-or-die contest in Oakland.
Kyrie didn’t shoot the ball particularly well through the first two rounds, but he caught fire against Boston – averaging 25.8 points, shooting .622 from the floor and 50 percent from long-range.
Kyrie – who scored at least 23 points in every game of last year’s Finals and hit the game-winner on Christmas Day at The Q – comes into this year’s best-of-seven feeling very confident against two-time MVP, Stephen Curry, in what promises to be another must-see matchup between two of this generation’s best point guards.
Curry’s stats weren’t as mind-blowing as they’ve been in the past, but he still led the league’s most explosive team in scoring and has been even better in the postseason, leading Golden State in scoring in eight games while notching at least 20 points in 10 straight Playoff contests.
He comes into the Finals as the Playoffs’ third-leading scorer, but he knows he’ll have to go hard on both ends if the Dubs want to take the trophy back from Cleveland.
Key: Bench Trial
Seven All-Stars will line the floor when the 2017 Finals tip off on Thursday night, but in any series, both team’s benches will play a pivotal role in who takes home the hardware.
The Cavaliers have some new major pieces with the second unit this season – Deron Williams and Kyle Korver, making the first Finals appearance of their careers. They’ve got 189 postseason contests between them, so it’s not like the moment will be too big.
After a slow start with the Cavaliers, Williams has been exactly the playmaker that Cleveland needed when they made the mid-season deal with Dallas – averaging .542 from the floor, including .500 from long-range and .909 from the stripe in the 2017 Playoffs. Korver has shot .415 from beyond the arc in the postseason, and we saw in Games 3 and 4 how quickly he can explode – going 11-for-15 from the floor over the final two games of the Second Round.
Iman Shumpert was the Cavaliers’ starting 2-guard in the 2015 Finals, and his role off the bench in 2017 will be just as critical on the defensive end.
Channing Frye’s been excellent for the Cavs over the past two postseasons – shooting .548 from long-distance, tops in franchise history. But he got two DNP-CDs in the previous series against Boston and closed last year’s Finals with three straight.
Game One might tell us how Tyronn Lue intends to use his bench in the series.
The Warriors have a couple usual suspects – Sixth Man candidate Andre Iguodala and Shawn Livingston. Both have hurt the Cavaliers in a major way over the past two postseasons, with Iguodala taking Finals MVP honors back in 2015.
JeVale McGee has actually had a solid postseason, netting double-digit scoring in four games and using his length to alter the game. David West, one year removed from his stint in San Antonio, gives the Warriors a solid interior presence they lacked when these teams squared off last June.
Key: Good Vibrations
Continuing his finest season in three years as a Cavalier, Kevin Love comes into this year’s Finals on a roll -- doubling-up in all five games of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The four-time All-Star averaged 22.6 points and 12.4 rebounds against the team that ended his postseason and kept him from facing the Warriors in the 2015 Finals. Against Boston, Love shot .486 from the field, .535 (23-of-43) from downtown and .870 (20-of-23) from the stripe.
Over the course of the postseason, he’s lived up to his part as a member of Cleveland’s devastating Big Three – with Cleveland’s triumvirate averaging a combined 78.0 points per during the Conference Finals.
Love posted pretty pedestrian numbers against Golden State last year, but he came up huge when it mattered most – leading both teams with 14 critical rebounds in Game 7 and coming up with the biggest single defensive stop in Cavaliers franchise history.
At some point, Draymond Green will match up with Kevin Love – and just about everyone else on the floor. The lead candidate for Defensive Player of the Year and All-NBA Third Teamer led the league in steals and was the top assist man on a team that led the league in assists.
Green can do it all, but he can be as volatile as he is versatile – and his hijinks cost him Game 5 in last year’s Finals. He’s talked about his desire to annihilate the Wine & Gold since last June’s loss. On Thursday night, he gets his chance.