For only the third time, the NBA Finals will feature seven players who made the All-Star team in the same season.
In ESPN.com's preseason #NBArank, the NBA's top three players were LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. A tier or two below were Draymond Green (14th), Kyrie Irving (15th) and Klay Thompson (16th) clustered closely together with Kevin Love (28th) not far behind them.
Everywhere from the Las Vegas sportsbooks to ESPN's Basketball Power Index to even LeBron James' framing of the 2017 NBA Finals has the Cleveland Cavaliers as heavy underdogs against the Golden State Warriors.
But Kevin Love doesn't buy it.
"The whole underdog thing is funny to me, because, yeah, at the end of the day we are defending our title," Love said Saturday after the Cavs' first practice in preparation for the Warriors since clinching a spot in the Finals.
In a complete team effort with standout offensive performances, the Cavs secured their place in the NBA Finals for the third straight year.
As it turns out, the regular season was largely meaningless. We end up where we thought we’d be. The Cleveland Cavaliers will play the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals for the third consecutive year. Like last year, both teams will enter the matchup healthy. Unlike last year, the Warriors have Kevin Durant.
LeBron James has had an outstanding run in the 2017 NBA playoffs -- significantly "flipping the switch" and playing at a level well above where he performed during the regular season.
He is scoring more efficiently, getting to the line more often and committing fewer turnovers on the offensive end. On defense, as the youngsters say, LeBron is crushing it. His defensive rebounding percentage is up 3 percent, his steal rate is up 44 percent and his block percentage has nearly doubled.
Some interesting comments from the Cavs’ head coach.
According to Cavs coach Tyronn Lue, the Boston Celtics are harder to defend to gameplan for than the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors and Cavaliers making their third straight NBA Finals. LeBron James passing Michael Jordan for the most points scored in NBA Playoff history.
There are a ton of storylines entering into 2017 NBA Finals, but let us never forget that these teams legitimately hate each other.
From down 25 to up 89 for the series is a 114 point swing! Whoa.
With 7:05 left in the second quarter of Game 1 in the Western Conference Finals, the Warriors were in trouble. The Spurs, off to a blazing hot start, had come roaring out of the gates and slapped the Warriors in the face. A hard, meaningful slap. Right in the kisser. So, with 7:05 left in the second quarter, Kawhi Leonard was fouled by David West. He approached the foul line, sank the first shot. Sank the second. The Warriors were down by 25 points. At home. In Game 1.
James, who has repeatedly said he’s not a scorer, just passed Michael Jordan as the all-time leading playoff scorer.
Hours before LeBron James scored 35 points on 72 percent shooting to bury the Celtics and pass Michael Jordan as the NBA’s all-time leader in playoff points, The King wanted to make one thing clear: He is not a scorer.
Kyrie Irving saves the day as the Cavs take a 3-1 lead.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have taken a 3-1 lead over the Boston Celtics in a game that was much closer than the final score suggested. The toughness of the Celtics was once again on display, as the wine and gold had to overcome a ton of adversity to come away with the much needed win.
