Warriors vs Cavaliers finale?

IT may still be a couple of weeks away before the matter is settled but this early, it looks like the reigning NBA titlist Golden State Warriors and playoffs unbeaten Cleveland Cavaliers are headed to a finals rematch this year.
In the ongoing Final Four playoffs – or best-of-seven conference finals – the Warriors are taking on the resurging and upset-conscious Oklahoma City Thunder in the West and the Cavaliers are tangling with the franchise history-making Toronto Raptors in the East.
Golden State beat Houston and Portland in five games each during the first two rounds to reach the West finals for a second consecutive year against the Oklahoma City Thunder, which defeated Dallas, 4-1, in Round One and upset regular-season second-placer San Antonio (with a franchise-best 67-15 record) in six games after being down 0-1 (in a 32-point loss on the Spurs’ home floor) and 1-2 in their series.
Cleveland shut out both Detroit and Atlanta (for a second consecutive year) in four straight games to advance to the East finals for the second year in a row against the shaky and inconsistent Toronto Raptors, who needed a pair of Game Seven victories at the Air Canada Centre against Indiana and Miami to qualify for the conference titular showcase for the first time in their 21-year franchise existence.
Golden State, however, lost homecourt edge after losing to OKC in Game One yesterday. Still, I pick the Warriors to win the series in six games.
The Warriors, who beat the Thunder, 3-0, in their head-to-head matchup during the regulars as NBA scoring champion Stephen Curry averaged 35 points a game, are favored to take out first-year OKC head mentor Billy Donovan’s charges despite the latter’s stunning series victory over the suddenly out-of-sync and interior-challenged Spurs.
So long as health is not an issue with their Big Three of first-ever unanimous NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry (24.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 6.5 apg in four playoff games), Curry’s Splash Brother mate Klay Thompson (27.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.9 apg – the first player in NBA playoff history to have three straight games with at least seven three-pointers and the first player ever to make five threes or more in seven consecutive postseason games and accounting) and do-everything 6-7 power forward-center Draymond Green (17.7 ppg, 10.4 rpg, 7.0 apg, 2.3 bpg), the Dubs should prevail over the Thunder, perhaps in six games.
Curry suffered ankle and knee sprains during the series against Houston and Portland and missed three games each (for a total of six), Green tweaked his left ankle in the fourth quarter of the series-clincher against Portland and the Warriors’ 7-foot, 31-year-old Aussie starting center Andrew Bogut sustained a right adductor strain in the same contest.
The series against Oklahoma City is likely for the Warriors to take but it won’t be easy from one game to another.
Golden State faces some danger against an athletic , energetic and pumped-up Thunder unit that owns a pair of bonafide superstars in sharpshooter Kevin Durant (27.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 3.6 apg, .435 FG pct) and triple-double king Russell Westbrook (25.5 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 10.8 apg (take note: He is a legit superstar, contrary to Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s assertion during the SA-Dallas first-round series that the Thunder only own one superstar in Durant and that Westbrook was only an All-Star), two-headed monsters in 7-foot, 22-year-old New Zealander Steven Adams (10.2 ppg, 9.9 rpg, his moustache does scare some people) and 6-11, soon-to-be 24-year-old Switzerland-born but Turkish native Enes Kanter (11.6 ppg, 7.3 rpg) who at times in the OKC-SA series played together, and 6-10 Congo-born but naturalized Spanish power forward Serge Ibaka (11.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg).
The East finals will feature a matchup between two opposing extremes. Cleveland is the lone unblemished team left in the playoffs while its opponent, Toronto, was forced into a pair of maximum seven games with homecourt advantage – the 15th NBA team to capture two Game Sevens in the same postseason.
Strangely, the Raptors won against Indiana and Miami with an identical script – Win at home in Game 1, Lose at home in Game 2, Win on the road in Game 3, Lose on the road in Game 4, Win at home in Game 5, Lose on the road in Game Six and Win at home in Game 7.
Against the Cavs, the boys from Maple Leaf can’t count on the same scenario simply because Cleveland has the homecourt edge and is far more superior (talent-wise) than the mismatched Raptors despite taking two of three games from the Wine City squad during the regulars.
To think the King, LeBron James (who in 2013 came just one first-place ballot short of a unanimous MVP vote while suiting up for eventual league champion Miami), is currently not even the No. 1 playoff scorer on his team (the first time that has happened in his 13-year NBA tenure since making postseason for the first time in 2006 in his original tour of duty with the Cavs).
An efficient James is norming just 23.5 points in eight games in these playoffs along with 8.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists in 38.8 minutes every time out – far less exposure than a year ago.
All-Star guard Kyrie Irving, who missed the last five games of the six-game 2015 Finals against Golden State due to an injury, is hitting at a team-high 23.5-point clip together with 5.5 assists. The other member of midseason-acquired first-year coach Tyronn Lue’s Big Three, Kevin Love, who himself was sent out commission early with shoulder surgery following the finale of the first-round series against Boston, is averaging a double-double with 18.9 scores and 12.5 rebounds in the current playoffs although his .364 field-goal shooting needs to improve.
Backcourter J.R. Smith is coming off the bench for the Cavs with 12.3 points and is shooting .508 from beyond the arc.
Cleveland registered an NBA-record 77 makes from the three-point area during the four-game sweep of Atlanta, including one in which they had 25 makes to set a league playoff mark for most threes in a single game.
Toronto has been inconsistent throughout the first two rounds against Miami and the inconsistent shooting of the Raptors’ All-Star backcourt duo of DeMar DeRozan (19.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg, .349 FG pct) and Kyle Lowry (17.4 ppg, 6.5 apg, .349 FG pct) has led to their struggles.
The Raptors hope that starting center Jonas Valanciunas from Lithuania can return after missing the final four games of their second-round series against Miami due to a sprained right ankle. His replacement from Congo, 6-8, 25-year-old Bismack Biyombo, has played well in his stead, totaling 29 rebounds in the final two games against the Heat, including a 17-point, 16-board effort in the decisive Game Seven.
LeBron had hoped to meet up with buddy and former Miami mate Dwyane Wade in the East finals. It was squashed by the Heat’s series loss to Toronto. And now, he has the Raptors to chew on.
I pick the Cavs to win in five games but LeBron just has enough power to will his team to a third straight 4-0 series sweep and an unprecedented 12-0 start in the playoffs.