Warriors’ Kerr will not coach Game One of NBA Finals

Both the Cavaliers and Warriors have upgraded their rosters from a year ago, when they went seven games in an epic series that spawned the first comeback from a 3-1 deficit in Finals history and resulted in Cleveland winning its first pro sports championship since 1964.

The Warriors are using Durant in every imaginable way on offence, and James isn’t surprised to see his good friend and Olympic teammate more mobile than he was with the Thunder. San Francisco 49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman, the superior player at the time, used to tell tall-and-lanky Durant to be aggressive, to take it to the hoop. “Are you kidding me?” Bowman recalled with a grin. Each has found a great groove in Golden State’s rotation, called upon to take pressure off the big stars while maintaining the highest level. The question will become: Is he more likely to leave if the Warriors win or if they lose?

In his playoff career, Jordan faced nine 60-win teams and only lost two of those series. It’s really that simple.

By any measure, the Cleveland Cavaliers are heavy underdogs in the 2017 NBA Finals.

James rejoined the Cavaliers in 2014 determined to bring a championship to his home state and brought the team back to relevance after four consecutive losing seasons. At the time, watching it live, it was so taut and intense that it felt overwhelming, like we were seeing the most thrilling NBA Finals Game 7 ever.

The Warriors’ fourth- and fifth-best players – Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala – have not performed up to their standards this postseason.

However, the Warriors are never better than when Curry has it going. Just past year, business manager Carter suggested James’ lifetime endorsement deal with Nike may top $1 billion, making it the largest in the history of the company.

Game 1 is Thursday night at 9 ET. “We’re trying to take what they took from us past year”. Lue seemed to have the Steve Kerr offense figured out by their seventh meeting last June, a 93-89 Cleveland win that ended with Golden State missing its final nine shots and going scoreless over the final 4:39. He said, no matter if he’s coaching or not, he will travel to Cleveland with the team in the Finals.

Except those Warriors aren’t these Warriors.

Durant is the difference.

And unlike the Warriors squad that blew a 3-1 Finals lead previous year after a record-setting 73-9 regular season, this version of the team is even more risky after adding former league MVP and four-time scoring champion Kevin Durant. Now with Durant in that mix in what essentially was Barnes’ spot, the Warriors have found different dimensions both offensively and defensively. Durant has been terrific in his first postseason with the Warriors, averaging 25.2 points on 55.6 percent shooting.

Kerr has been absent from the Golden State bench for 10 straight playoff games as he deals with complications from 2015 back surgery.

Looking at the chart, compare the amount of shots Irving took last series against the Celtics to the amount he has taken in everything else since the start of the 2015-16 regular season. Seven of Sports Illustrated’s nine National Basketball Association experts took Golden State, the majority of which believe it’ll take five games or fewer.

They haven’t blinked. They’re 27-1 in their last 28 games. Then they went 12-0 in these playoffs leading up to this clash of the titans. They’re rested. They’re healthy.