While the NBA is an extremely competitive, there are currently two teams that are destined for a chance at the Championship. The Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers have traded Championships back to back with the Warriors winning the Finals series 4-2 in 2015 and the Cavaliers winning last year’s Finals 4-3. Odds-makers have the two teams facing each other again this year and statistically speaking, it’s not a far-fetched prediction.
The Warriors currently sit in 1st place of a tough Western Conference and are 3 games ahead of 2nd place San Antonio Spurs. They’re 39-7 on the season so far and are coming off a recent comeback win against the Charlotte Hornets. The Cavs are sitting in 1st place of the Eastern Conference and are 2 games ahead of the Toronto Raptors. The Cavs record is 30-14 for the season and they are on a 3-game losing streak, most recently losing in overtime to the Sacramento Kings.
If these standings remain, then both teams will clinch the number one seed in the playoffs, where they will face the eighth seed team of their respective conferences. Both teams are heavily favored to make it to the NBA Finals, though anything can happen with playoff basketball. Admittedly, the Warriors face a tougher road to the Finals, as the Western Conference has teams that are a little more competitive when compared to those in the East. The Warriors will likely have to play the Spurs or the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Finals, whereas the Eastern Conference Finals are looking to be a rematch of last year’s Cavs-Raptors series, where the Cavs narrowly escaped.
There have been some minor changes to the team rosters, as is customary in the offseason and before the in-season trade deadline, however there was one major trade that could be the X-factor for the Warriors—Kevin Durant. Durant left the Thunder after several seasons of not winning a championship alongside fellow star Russell Westbrook, opting instead for a shot at glory with Steph Curry and the Warriors. Durant has proven to be the asset everyone knew he would be, averaging 26.2 points a game and a field-goal percentage of 54.3%.
The pressure is on the Warriors this year, as they have to justify their star summer signing Durant and determine if he will be able to help them reclaim the title. The Warriors already have weapons in the Splash Bros—Steph Curry and Klay Thompson (who are averaging 24.6 and 21.1 points respectively)—Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, David West and more, but Durant adds a whole new component to their starting lineup.The Warriors and Cavs have already played twice this year, once on Christmas Day where they lost in Cleveland 109-108, and again on January 16, where they blew out the Cavs at home 126-91. The Warriors blew a 3-1 series lead in the last NBA Finals, so they’ll be looking to not make that mistake again.
We here at sports gambling California feel this postseason is sure to be one for the storybooks. If it ends up being Warriors-Thunder in the Western Conference finals, then you can expect an all-out grudge match. It’s no secret that Westbrook and the rest of the Thunder were upset with Durant leaving, and you can feel the tension when the two teams play each other. If the Warriors want their shot at redemption against the Cavs, they’re going to have to show true grit against a conference that’s tired of seeing them advance.
They say the third time’s the charm, so we’ll see what happens when these 2 NBA titans play for a third time.