Very few in the basketball and betting world view the current NBA champions, the Cleveland Cavaliers, as the favorite team when starting the title defense against the Golden State Warriors on June 1. Rivals who will have for the third consecutive year.
Not only are they not favorites among experts or bets but this time they are less also consider that they will have the opportunity to win the series of the NBA Finals.
Although they are recognized to the champions that are the best equipment of the Conference East and that they have to the great star like is the eave LeBron James.
But there is everything, the rest the reality is that the Warriors with the acquisition of forward Kevin Durant are better team in all facets of the game.
All of the above is what is valued and analyzed within the NBA as a preamble what will be another historical duel and revenge on revenge, something that somehow also have assimilated the players themselves of the Cavaliers but are also arranged as in the 2016 to change the forecasts.
“It’s a lot of fun for me, because we are defending our title after all,” said Cavaliers quarterback Kevin Love. “I think we will use it as a motivation, but we are not going to fall for it, it is difficult for me to say that this is the case, I do not feel that we are the disadvantaged and we have to play.”
Love’s argument is that when they have faced each other, the Cavaliers have always adapted well and responded positively.
It is possible to accept Love’s perspective, but as the teams prepare for the first game of the series, at Thursday’s Oracle Arena in Oakland, the comments that Warriors power forward Draymond Green made in October, still Resonate in Cleveland.
Still hurt after the Warriors let out a three-game lead in Cleveland’s final last year, the outgoing Green, who was suspended in the fifth game of the series in a veritable “marrullerÃa” and “provocation” Of James, said that if he has a chance, he plans to “destroy and annihilate” the Cavaliers.
Love praised Green’s competitiveness and issued a subtle warning to all of Northern California.
“He said he wanted to see us,” Love recalled. “Here we are, starting Thursday.”
The third episode of the trilogy is full of stories, the main one is to see if James and company have enough arsenal for a heads-up match with the Warriors, who will have the support of Durant, better defense and a bench that frightens, in addition To be again the team with the best mark of the regular season.
The Warriors have been unstoppable in the playoffs with a perfect and historic 12-0 record after sweeping the series against the Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz and Spur San Antonio.
In addition the margin on each of the victories has been with an average of 16.3 first team to start 12-0 and with an average victory margin of 16.3 points, the highest in history.
Faced with this reality, the betting world has no doubt about the team and gives the Warriors wide winners and favorites to win the championship, which would be the second in three years and also against the Cavaliers.
For his part, James only referred to the Warriors as “that giant” and “a beast” after the win in the fifth game of the Eastern Conference finals that won 4-1 to the Boston Celtics, where he became The NBA’s top scorer in the playoffs after beating legendary Michael Jordan.
James chose not to mention the Warriors after the match and preferred to hold his third consecutive conference title with Cleveland and his seventh consecutive final.
The Cavaliers star also did not comment on Saturday with the press, leaving Love the task of unofficial spokesman, while the world of sports is approaching a duel that seemed inevitable from the moment the series ended for the championship the previous year.
Love was asked if the Cavs wanted the Warriors as their rivals.
“Wanting the Warriors?” I ask. “They’ve been at the top, the best team in the league for the past three years, they’ve been super-powerful, more or less we thought we’d see them, they’ve played great this year.”
“Obviously adding an MVP to a team that already has a player who has won the award twice makes them more powerful,” admitted Love. “It’s hard to say we were not expecting it, we knew it would be there, so somehow we’re prepared.”
