Someone call Bruce Buffer, because it’s time for the main event of the 2018 NBA season. After 82 regular season games and a lengthy, hard-fought first three rounds of the postseason, we’re left with two teams standing. For the fourth year in a row, we’re getting a matchup between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors.
Is this good? Is this bad? Is this boring? Is this compelling? Who knows! This is a “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” sorts of things, and all we can say right now is that we’re getting the fourth chapter in what has been an epic rivalry between these two squads.
Will the Warriors — ripe with talent and fresh off of beating a team that was literally designed to take them down in the conference finals — win their third title in four years, cementing themselves as a dynasty? Or can LeBron James accomplish what would go down as the greatest achievement in a career that has been full of unforgettable moments, winning his second title in Cleveland against the team that has become his nemesis?
Our staff, with a little help from some of our friends from around the web, gave their predictions on what they think is going to happen during the final series of the 2018 postseason.
Robby Kalland: Warriors in 4. I love LeBron and think LeBron will have a huge series, but I genuinely don’t know if he can will this Cavs team to a win in this series. The Warriors showed some vulnerability in going seven games with Houston, but that was a team quite literally built to attack Golden State’s weaknesses. The Cavs, simply put, are not. The Warriors’ hubris may very well get in the way of them completing a sweep, but I think they want to try and put an exclamation point on their now four-year long rivalry with Cleveland.
The Cavs defense is just so, so bad that I’m not sure how they’ll slow down this Warriors team. Houston, for all the focus on what their offense did, had the best defensive series against Golden State of any team that has faced this squad since 2015. I feel confident saying the Cavs’ defense will not come anywhere close to that level of success and will end up getting overwhelmed by the Warriors’ offense despite the best efforts of LeBron, who will probably average a 40-point triple-double in the series.
Brad Rowland: Warriors in 5. This is (easily) the most common prediction and, as a result, I kind of hate it. With that said, it’s the scenario that makes the most sense. Cleveland won’t be favored in a single game, even if Kevin Love plays and Andre Iguodala does not, indicating that it would be very difficult to pick them to win more than once. However, LeBron James exists and, well, the Warriors don’t have the best recent track record of playing up to their maximum capability. Game 3 feels like the spot to “predict” a Cavs win but, honestly, it will be up to the Warriors not focusing and not playing well to allow Cleveland to steal one. Oh, and LeBron could certainly drop a 50-15-10 at some point to make it easier.
Oliver Maroney: Warriors in 6. I wanted to go with the pack and say Warriors in 5, but LeBron exists and has had arguably the most incredible playoff run of his career. Every time we doubt this Cavaliers team, it seems like they prove us wrong. They won’t be favored in any games and they shouldn’t be favored based on the supporting casts and doubts around Kevin Love’s health.
However, the Warriors haven’t looked like the Warriors of last season. That hunger, drive, and team continuity seems a little off and Kevin Durant reverting back to his Oklahoma City style of play seems to have disrupted this team slightly. Am I saying the Warriors will lose? No. Would I be that surprised if the Warriors lost? Not really. That being said, I’m picking the Warriors because the odds are just astounding to overcome. The Rockets did just show us how close you can come to beating this Warriors team and I’m presuming LeBron and Lue will look at the tape of how that Rockets team competed against them.
There’s a blueprint which involves putting in 48 minutes of pressure on the defensive side of the ball, making Golden State settle for shots that are less than ideal. Obviously the Rockets can switch and possess more talent but I just wouldn’t be shocked if we see some semblance of this from the Cavaliers. On, and I think we might see LeBron go full supernova in this series, making it somewhat compelling.
Sean Highkin: Warriors in 5. I want to pick a sweep. I really do. The Warriors handled the Cavs pretty easily last year, and that was a much better Cleveland team than this one. Even without Andre Iguodala, the talent gap is too massive to give the Cavs any real shot to win the series. If they do, it will be LeBron’s greatest career achievement, more so than the 3-1 comeback or getting the 2007 Cavs to the Finals. Out of respect for LeBron, I’ll go with the safe pick and give the Cavs a game.
Jamie Cooper: Warriors in 6. I’m going with six games instead of the gentlemen’s sweep since that’s the easiest and most popular (and likeliest) prediction. I’m going to venture that beyond simply LeBron James dragging this team by its hair to a single victory through the sheer force of his indomitable will, the Cavs’ supporting cast will somehow manage to all get on the same page at the same time in the face of insurmountable odds to make this series interesting. The Warriors inadvertently revealed inconsistencies and weaknesses during the conference finals and the Rockets exploited them. If the Cavs can tear a page out of their playbook and show some consistency all across the board — which is admittedly a tall order — they might be able to eke out a pair of wins.
Konata Edwards: Warriors in 6. I think LeBron knows he can’t afford to take Game 1 off in this series and attacks the defense to see which boundaries he can and cannot push early. That plus the Igoudala injury gives the Cavs one game in Oakland. The thing that factors into the Cavs getting a second game is I think the supporting cast is going to show better than most think. That said, it’s too much Steph and KD, which will likely see this series end in Cleveland.
Scott Rafferty: Warriors in 5, for many of the reasons mentioned above. If last season’s Cavaliers couldn’t win more than one game against the Warriors, I’m having a hard time seeing this season’s Cavaliers one-upping them. The Warriors are almost the same team and the Cavaliers have gotten significantly worse, even with LeBron playing at an all-time level. I would love to see him continue his postseason brilliance and make it a series — it would only strengthen his case as the GOAT if he does — but I’m not sure he can beat these Warriors all by himself.
Martin Rickman: Warriors in 6. The Cavs – and LeBron – have enough pride to get hot one game at home and see the role players look respectable to avoid having their own repeat SNL skit. I also believe in LeBron, and in the Warriors’ ability to stop caring for long stretches enough, to make this interesting and give the people more than a “boring” Finals. The Cavs were a shot away from winning a second game in 2017, and while this Cleveland team is a lot worse overall than the one before it, James is even more locked in (if this was even possible). Golden State is a bit more vulnerable due to some bumps and bruises and whatever late-era Beatles thing is happening with Kevin Durant every other game. Head says Warriors in 5, Heart says Warriors in 6, Galaxy Brain Meme says Cavs in 7, but I’ll split the difference.
Ryan Nagelhout: Warriors in 4. It would be far more fun if this prediction were different, and as good as LeBron James has been this postseason you could argue that he is worth one win against a team the Cavaliers have seen in the Finals the previous three times. But this series will not be the rock fight the Cavaliers got themselves into a number of times in the Eastern Conference playoffs this season. The Warriors are going to score a ton of points, and the Cavs defense — in all forms and rotations — has struggled mightily this season. James will do his Atlas thing, and it will be impressive. But sometimes the rock you were made to carry crushes you, anyway.
Aaron Williams: Warriors in 6. I don’t really care that these two teams have faced each other so many times. The past isn’t really an indicator of the future. The Cobra Kai kids beat up Daniel LaRusso so many times, it almost didn’t make sense for him to face Johnny Lawrence at the end of The Karate Kid, but he did and he won. So it is for LeBron and this current iteration of the Cavs; this latest battle to find out if he and they can dig deep enough to overcome their bullies with a last second, desperation move provides all the drama you could possibly ask for. To assume they can’t, that the end of it all is a foregone conclusion, is to be the sort of killjoy who loudly makes predictions in the theater while texting with their phone screen on maximum brightness, then leaves before the climax. Not only is it obnoxious, you just might miss out on one of the greatest, most entertaining, genre-defining moments.
Until someone invents a cure for Curry and/or Durant, the Warriors are as inkillable as Jason Voorhees. Every time you think you’ve put them in the ground, they rise again to find a new and imaginative demise for their current targets. Give me at least five minutes a game of JR vs. Swaggy though.
Bill DiFilippo: Warriors in 4. The voice in my head that screams “LeBron James is the best player ever” once an hour thinks that’s crazy. I really want to pick Cleveland to get a game or two off of Golden State — partly because they have LeBron, and partly because I trust that they’ll be able to slow things down against a hobbled Warriors squad to the point that games become an absolute slog, giving them a chance to pick up wins. But when I look at these two teams, I just can’t see a scenario where players 2-15 on the Cavaliers can pick up enough slack to compensate for the brilliance of No. 23.
Of course, if the Cavs can get Kevin Love to look like an All-Star, plus George Hill and Jeff Green to play to the level Cleveland needs them to play on both ends of the floor, plus Kyle Korver/J.R. Smith/Jordan Clarkson/maybe Rodney Hood provide much-needed floor spacing, plus Tristan Thompson and Larry Nance being hyperactive nuisances in the frontcourt (especially on defense), then maybe this series gets interesting. The issue is that’s a lot of things Cleveland needs, some of which might not be plausible, whereas Golden State basically needs to play its brand of basketball to win because it has four of the 20-25 best basketball players alive. Plus I can’t get past this gnawing feeling that the Warriors are upset Cleveland kept them from going fo-fo-fo-fo last year and they are going to be motivated to pull off a great performance. I really hope I’m wrong and we get a long, unforgettable, compelling Finals, but I’m taking the sweep.
