2016 NBA Finals Roundtable: B/R Experts’ Preview and Predictions

Check your excuses, caveats and asterisks at the door. The Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers are back in the NBA Finals, with each side sporting a spotless injury report this time around. 

Cleveland carries a 12-2 postseason record into the championship round. Golden State didn’t sweep any playoff opponent, but it’s riding sky-high after rallying against the Oklahoma City Thunder and becoming just the third team in NBA history to overturn a 3-1 deficit in the conference finals.

Can LeBron James and the Cavs snap their city’s 52-year championship drought, or will the Dubs defend their throne and validate both their record-setting 73-win campaign and Stephen Curry’s unprecedented unanimous MVP award?

Bleacher Report NBA experts Howard Beck, Ric Bucher, Kevin Ding, Adam Fromal and Grant Hughes analyze what to expect when the Finals tip off Thursday.

 

1. What impressed you more: Cleveland’s sprint through the East or Golden State’s comeback in the Western Conference Finals?

Beck: The question, frankly, isn’t fair to the Cavs because nothing they did—even going undefeated—could match the Warriors’ mesmerizing comeback. At 3-1, the Warriors were practically declared dead, and understandably so considering the strength of their opponent.

The Cavs never trailed in a series, but the Cavs never faced a team with the firepower of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. And the East is still the weaker conference. Going 12-2 is impressive—just not as impressive as winning three straight elimination games against a team featuring two of the top five players in the world.

Bucher: Warriors. Without question. The Cavs played a happy-to-be-here Detroit Pistons team, an Atlanta Hawks team they’ve owned for a couple of years and an injury-riddled Toronto Raptors team also thrilled to be where it was. In short, Cleveland did what it was supposed to do.

Ding: Blitzing through the B-League (I’ll rate Detroit, Atlanta and Toronto a couple notches higher than the NBA D-League) with two losses, or stiff-arming elimination and an OKC team that would be a worthy NBA champion? What Golden State did was light years ahead of Cleveland’s achievements.

Fromal: The Warriors proved the phrase “heart of a champion” is no mere joke. Losing three of the first four games turned the beginning of the Western Conference Finals into the definition of a sunk cost, and they played as such. The past did not matter. Not to take their opponents’ success too lightly, but that has to be more impressive than stomping a trio of overmatched teams in the weaker conference.

Hughes: Kudos to Cleveland for knocking off flawed, inferior competition easily, but let’s be serious: The Warriors’ presence in the Finals is the result of an all-time improbable achievement. Handily winning a pair of playoff series without a healthy Curry and then becoming the 10th team (of 233) to ever climb out of a 3-1 hole—against a Thunder team that pureed the 67-win San Antonio Spurs, no less? It’s the Warriors, hands down.

 

2. Whose Big 3 is more dangerous right now?

Beck: Still the Warriors’ because the Steph-Klay-Dray trio simply meshes better than the Cavs’ group. Curry and Draymond Green are a deadly pick-and-roll combination. Curry and Klay Thompson form the best shooting duo in NBA history. Thompson and Green are both elite defenders.

Of the Cavs’ stars, only James is a true two-way player. Although Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving are great scorers, both are unreliable defenders. And while the Cavs’ offensive chemistry has been solid in these playoffs, it wasn’t long ago they were struggling to blend their considerable talents.

Bucher: The numbers say the Cavs’, but I’m still not sold they complement each other the way the Warriors’ three do. No one with the Cavs poses the challenge to Draymond that Steven Adams did, and Klay’s confidence has to be soaring after his Game 6 performance. In short: Ws have three guys who believe they can take over a postseason game. Cavs have, at best, two.

Ding: The scary thing is Thompson’s career arc might’ve just changed, making the Warriors even more imposing. He seized the stage during the second half of the Game 4 loss in OKC because Curry and Green were so shaky, and Thompson realized he has the skill and standing to do that and help the team whenever it needs it—as he did in Game 6. That means any of GSW’s three can control a game, whereas Love most definitely cannot.

Fromal: Curry, Thompson and Green have outscored their opponents by 7.4 points per 100 possessions during the postseason, per Basketball-Reference.com. James, Irving and Love, also according to Basketball-Reference.com, have posted a playoff net rating of 18.3. Yes, you’re reading that correctly. With Irving and Love both hitting their strides during this second season, I have to give them the edge—however slight it may be from a subjective standpoint.

Hughes: The Warriors will …

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