Warriors strongly favored in Las Vegas over Cavs for NBA Finals

James elected not to talk about the Warriors following the game, choosing instead to celebrate a third straight conference title in Cleveland and his seventh consecutive Finals trip. The 2016 champions vs. the 2015 champions.

The Cleveland Cavaliers look to set the tone of this series early by stealing game one and home court advantage.

Detroit became the league’s third repeat victor in the championship game the following season when Layne threw a 33-yard TD pass to Jim Doran with just over 2 minutes remaining for a 17-16 victory.

So basically, the Warriors are constantly running, and while they haven’t been as efficient as they could be, they’re just overwhelming teams with opportunities to do so.

The Cavaliers ended the Celtics post-season – winning the game, 135-102.

Act III in this trilogy is overloaded with story lines, with the biggest being whether James and Co. have enough firepower to go toe-to-toe with the Warriors, who added superstar Kevin Durant to a team that won 73 games a year ago before its Finals flameout.

“This is the honest truth, and I’m probably going to get in trouble for this, I don’t think there’s anything you can do to try and compare a team to our team because we have LeBron and Kyrie”, said Cavs veteran forward Channing Frye.

“Playing in this league, you can’t take anything for granted”, Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. So you have to appreciate it. “It’s been challenging for us to kind of – plays out of timeout, kind of been killing us on ATOs and keeping us off balance”.

Already, the back-and-forth has begun.

“He put us on his back and carried us”, Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. Will Mike Brown hand his former team a loss?

The Golden State Warriors have taken care of business in the Western Conference by sweeping the San Antonio Spurs and becoming the first team in National Basketball Association history to get to the National Basketball Association finals with a 12-0 playoff record. “They’re a tough, competitive team, so defensively they get a lot of deflections and a lot of steals”. But there’s also a clear respect level between the clubs as well. No player is untouchable and no asset is untouchable because the simple fact is the Celtics need to find a way to add top-level talent. “So it makes it even more unsafe when you equip that talent, that skill with those guys”. Every night we get challenged.

But Durant played LeBron as a member of the Heat in The Finals. The Thunder lost to Miami in five games, a series that made James a champion for the first time.

Durant, who previously faced James in the 2012 Finals with Oklahoma City, has taken a great team and elevated it to a almost unstoppable level.

“We’ve been in that position before”, Love said.

They’ll collide again, starting next week.

The 40-year-old Lue was rewarded with a contract extension after the Cavs’ championship run last June for the city’s first major sports title in 52 years. Durant signed as a free agent during the National Basketball Association offseason, walking away from the Oklahoma City Thunder in search of a championship ring.

“It’s a little different, definitely”. Finished the playoffs having made at least 10 3-pointers in 16 of their 18 games.

I’m not saying that I was reading James’ mind as he went up to stuff the ball against the Boston Celtics during Thursday’s third quarter-only to see the ball clang high off the rim.

If you don’t want to rile up friends and relatives over the long weekend, you might also steer clear of the James-Jordan comparison.