Special series
With the way the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers made their way to set up a third National Basketball Association finals serving between them, there is every reason to believe that we have a special series in our hands.
The Dubs swept through the three rounds of the Western Conference playoffs while the Cavs dropped just one game, which could have easily been a “W” had they kept their focus, out in the Eastern Conference.
What the two finals protagonists, which begin their best-of-seven championship affair on Friday, have done in the playoffs was to underscore the already obvious — they are the two best teams in The Association right now.
And historical numbers shared by the NBA further highlight how different a cut this latest Warriors-Cavaliers finals joust is.
The series marks the first time that the same teams are meeting in the NBA finals for three consecutive times.
This has happened once each in the other three major North American pro sports: Cleveland Browns vs. Detroit Lions in National Football League Championship Game from 1952-54 (preSuper Bowl era); New York Yankees vs. New York Giants in the Major League Baseball World Series from 1921-23; and Detroit Red Wings vs. Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League Stanley Cup Finals from 1954-56.
We know the standings between the Warriors and Cavaliers, having won each of the last two NBA titles and making this third edition a “decider” of sorts.
Golden State going 12-0 in the playoffs and world champion Cleveland recording a 12-1 card have given way to a series where both teams reached the finals with one loss or fewer since the 1950s, when teams played far fewer postseason games before the championship series.
Since the NBA playoffs expanded to 16 teams for the 1983- 84 season, the Warriors and Cavaliers’ combined playoff record of 24-1 has the best combined winning percentage to date entering the finals with 96.1%.
This beat that of the Detroit Pistons and Los Angeles Lakers (22-2 and 91.7%) in 1989, Chicago Bulls and Lakers (22-4 and 84.6%) in 1991, Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets (22-4 and 84.6%) in 1986, and Cleveland and Golden State (24-5 and 82.8%) in 2015.
The Warriors at 12-0 entering the finals made them the first NBA team to achieve such feat and they are now in prime position to finish with the best single-season playoff winning percentage in NBA history.
Incidentally, the Cavaliers (12-1) can do the same if they are able to sweep the Warriors in the series at hand.
Currently, the Lakers champion team of 2000-01 holds the best winning percentage record of 93.8% (15-1). The lone lost by Lakers was dealt by Allen Iverson and the Sixers in Game One of the finals that had “The Answer” stepping over now-Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue.
The Lakers are followed in this category by the 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers (92.3%), 1998-99 San Antonio Spurs, 1990-91 Bulls and 1988-89 Pistons (88.2%).
The series is definitely not bereft of league stars to admire and follow.
It features players who have claimed seven of the last eight league MVP awards, namely LeBron James of the Cavaliers (2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013), and Golden State’s Kevin Durant (2014) and Stephen Curry (2015 and 2016).
The finals series has seven 2017 AllStars and 11 players who have been AllStars in their career, marking the first time since 1983 (Lakers vs. Sixers) such is happening.
Also, of the 16 active players with multiple 50-point games, five will be part of the finals this year — James (10; most for active players), Curry (5), Durant (4), Kyrie Irving (2) and Klay Thompson (2).
Further, this year’s finals will be a great canvas to see the tremendous body of work that James has had in his career.
This will be his seventh straight finals, playing for the Miami Heat and Cavaliers, and is now joint sixth all time.
He is steadily climbing in finals numbers in most points (7th), rebounds (9th), assists 5th), steals (2nd), field goals (8th), minutes (8th) and triple-doubles (2nd).
So with all these numbers and more, need we really say how special the 2017 NBA Finals is?
Of course, it is not as if we really needed more prodding to tune in to it. After all, it is Warriors versus Cavaliers.
Blue and Yellow against Wine and Yellow, it does not get any better than this. Enjoy!