History is on the line for both the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers when two of the NBA’s more success-starved teams meet in the 2015 NBA Finals beginning at Oracle Arena on June 4.
The Warriors are heading in as the favourites and looking to cap off a remarkable season that has seen them achieve a 67-15 record, led there by the phenomenal form of MVP winner Stephen Curry.
They haven’t appeared in an NBA Finals series since their last championship in 1975, and after 40 years of waiting, they’re desperate to fulfil their potential and get across the line for what would be their fourth NBA championship.
Cleveland, if anything, are more desperate to get the win, however, and it’s a desperation they’ll need if they’re going to beat the odds and come out on top.
45 years into the franchise’s history and this is still only the second finals series they’ve ever made, following up their unsuccessful 2007 appearance that ended in a 4-0 sweep to the San Antonio Spurs.
We could pretend that there’s a handful of factors behind Cleveland’s rise to the finals this year but no one would be believing that. He’s been supported well, but one man and one man alone has brought them there.
Once the no. 1 pick of the 2003 draft, LeBron James’ decision to leave the Cavs for the greener grasses of the Miami Heat at the end of the 2010 season was a thorn in Cleveland’s side for four years as they watched their home-grown superstar rise to four consecutive finals appearances, winning two of them.
When, after a 1-4 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2014 finals, James made the call to return to Cleveland and seek a championship there, and all was very, very quickly forgiven.
The addition also of Kevin Love joining the Cavs from the Minnesota Timberwolves, in combination with Australian-born Cavalier Kyrie Irving, has seen the Cavs reach the peak of the competition, and put them in position to finally break a 45-year drought.
The Cavaliers can boast a living legend, but that might not be enough to win them the series. Despite LeBron’s influence, the Warriors are still the favourites heading into the series.
Why is that? The simple answer is that they’re a better team – while they may not have any individual players who can match the talent of LeBron James, they’ve got a greater spread of talent, a greater depth of quality players, and this has them ahead of the Cavaliers in the eyes of most.
That’s not to say that this Warriors side is a faceless legion. They have their own superstar – coincidentally also a native of Akron, Ohio – in Stephen Curry, this year’s MVP winner, backed up by the likes of Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut.
The Warriors have clearly been the better team all season and they proved that in the playoffs. They faced a difficult run to the finals but triumphed time and time again, adapting their game to push past New Orleans, Memphis and Houston.
Probably the one thing that leaves the Warriors open to a bit of doubt is the lack of finals experience. As you’d expect from a team that hasn’t played a finals series in 40 years, they’re a bit low in that area.
Compare that to LeBron, who is making his fifth consecutive finals series appearance, a remarkable achievement that hasn’t been seen in the NBA since the dominant Celtics sides of the 1960s.
Sometimes the experience of having been there and done that before is just what you need to get the win, and LeBron has that in spades.
We know what we’re going to get out of the Warriors in the series and it’s going to be some excellent play. What we don’t know is whether or not LeBron can lift his side to an unlikely championship win.
If he does, it would be a fairytale. Not only would it be the first win in the franchise’s history but it would warm the hearts of Cleveland fans who’ve watched on bitterly during LeBron’s time at the Heat.
For LeBron, it would mean he has a 3-3 record in finals series, significantly more appealing than the 2-4 record he will be looking at if the Cavaliers fall short. On top of that, he’ll never have to hear someone tell him he had to leave Cleveland to get a ring again.
However, while LeBron is the Cavaliers go-to guy to bring home a championship, their success may depend more on the recovery of Kyrie Irving. With Kevin Love ruled out earlier in the playoffs, the Cavaliers are beginning to run low on talent beyond LeBron, and will be in serious trouble with their match-ups if Irving’s knee continues to hold him back.
The Warriors and the Cavaliers both have the chance here to make history. Which of them is going to take it?
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