THE third installment of the NBA Finals trilogy between the reigning champion Cleveland Cavaliers and the 2015 titlist Golden State Warriors will commence today June 2 (9 a.m., PH time) at the Oracle Arena in California.
Las Vegas oddsmakers have pegged the Warriors as seven-point favorites to win the best-of-seven series opener.
In the NBA’s 71-year history, around 73 percent of the teams that secured Game 1 of the Finals have gone on to secure the Larry O’Brien championship trophy.
Game 2, which will be held on Monday June 5 (8 a.m., PH time), will also be hosted by the Dubs, who own homecourt advantage by virtue of their NBA-best 67-15 record during the regular campaign.
The series then shifts to Cleveland where the Cavs will perform before a friendly crowd at the Quicken Loans Arena in Game 3 (June 8, 9 a.m.) and Game 4 (June 10, 9 a.m.).
If necessary, the fifth game will be played on June 13 (9 a.m.) on the Warriors’ home floor while Game 6 will be held June 16 (9 a.m.) in Cleveland.
Should the series stretch to the maximum seven games, the deciding match would take place at the Oracle Arena.
According to the Las Vegas oddsmakers, there is a 93 percent chance that Golden State will win its second NBA crown in three years but neither the Warriors nor the Cavaliers are expected to register a four-game sweep. The Dubs, though, are favored to win it all if the series goes to five, six or seven games.
The two high-powered teams have combined for an all-time league record-best 24-1 playoff record — 12-0 by Golden State and 12-1 by Cleveland — heading into the Finals that feature seven players (Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green for the Warriors and LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love for the Cavaliers) who made the All-Star team in the same season.
This marks only the third time in NBA Finals history that as many as seven All-Stars are seeing action with the championship on the line.
This year’s third consecutive Finals matchup between Cleveland and Golden State is also a first in NBA history.
Before now, a Finals trilogy also had not happened in any of the four U.S. major pro team sports leagues in over 60 years. The last time that two teams faced each other in three straight title series was in 1954-55-56 when the Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings duked it out in the National Hockey League Finals.
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The silhouette of legendary Los Angeles Lakers great Jerry West, who’s now an executive consultant with the reigning titlist Golden State Warriors, appears on the National Basketball Association logo.
The prolific 6-2 combo guard, though, won just one NBA championship in an illustrious pro career from 1960-61 through 1973-74, and only registered a 1-8 record during the NBA Finals.
West’s Lakers lost six consecutive NBA Finals series to their arch nemesis Boston Celtics in 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969.
It came at a time when Bill Russell was dominating the league and his Celtics were putting together a dynastic rule, having snared a league record-setting eight straight crowns from 1959 to 1966 and netting two more with Russell as their playing coach in 1968 and 1969.
The Finals record for West fell to 0-7 with a Game Seven defeat to limping center Willis Reed and the New York Knicks in 1970.
West and the Lakers finally broke through in 1972 with a 4-1 decision over the Knicks for their first NBA diadem since the franchise moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960-61 following a 4-1 decision.
A year later (in 1973), the Lakers again owned the homecourt advantage in the Finals but New York exacted revenged with an identical 4-1 victory in the rematch.
The 1969 NBA Finals was a devastating loss to the Lakers and painful for West in particular. The Lakers, with the homecourt advantage, took a 2-0 lead at the Fabulous Forum. The Celtics came roaring back with a pair of successes at the old Boston Garden – including an 89-88 win in Game Four on guard Sam Jones’ buzzer-beating off-balance jumper – to deadlock the best-of-seven series at 2-2.
LA momentarily seized a 3-2 lead with a 117-104 victory at home but Boston again equalized at 3-all with a 99-90 decision in the sixth game.
Colorful balloons hung in the rafters of the Forum for the deciding Game Seven but they never came down as the Celtics, behind reserve frontliner Don Nelson’s up-and-down jump shot from the 15-foot line in the final seconds of the 48-minute thriller swooshed the nets to propel the Green to a 108-106 win and gift Russell with his record-setting 11th and final ring.
It marked the first time in NBA Finals history that a Game 7 was won by the road team.
In the seven-game 1969 Finals, West averaged 37.9 points a game, collecting 53 points in the series-opening 120-118 win and 41 in a 118-112 Game Two. In the finale, a limping West, who tallied 39 points but sustained a pulled hamstring in a 117-104 LA win in the fifth game, registered a triple-double with 42 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists in a losing cause.
West romped away with the 1969 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player honors in the year the league introduced the award based on media balloting.
Until now, West, who hung up his jersey in the summer of 1974, is the only player from a losing finalist to secure the Bill Russell hardware that goes to the Finals MVP.
West’s Finals failures never diminished his lofty stature in NBA history and he subsequently was voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980.
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