Insider offers a breakdown of every playoff series using an expert combination of scouting from Amin Elhassan and advanced metrics from Bradford Doolittle to answer three crucial questions. Also included are predictions from the writers, and ESPN's NBA Basketball Power Index projection for the series.
If you divorce yourself from what we've seen the past few months and consider the Finals from a historical standpoint, it's a bizarre matchup. The Cleveland Cavaliers against the Golden State Warriors. Sure, in 2014-15, we've got LeBron James and Stephen Curry. But think of it like this: Only twice in the past 21 years have both of these teams even made the playoffs in the same season.
The respective records of futility for these organizations are prodigious. The Cavs have never won a title, have made the Finals just once and have never won a game in the league's final round. The Warriors haven't been to the Finals in 40 years -- the longest such stretch in NBA history. Cleveland -- as a city -- is hoping for its first professional sports title since the Browns won the NFL title in 1964. All told, there have been 143 seasons played across the major sports leagues with Cleveland coming up without a title. It's an active streak that is easily the longest for an American city.
As for Golden State, the 49ers and Giants have given the Bay area plenty of title success, but the city of Oakland itself has gone 85 seasons without a crown. The A's last won in 1989, the Warriors in 1975, and the Raiders haven't won in Oakland since 1980.
One way or another, the streak is going to end for one of these proud municipalities. Both teams rolled through their respective conferences and enter the Finals with a combined postseason record of 24-5, the best mark for a Finals pairing since 1991. For James, he's headed into his fifth straight Finals appearance, the longest streak of anyone who didn't play for the 1960s Celtics dynasty. Meanwhile, the Warriors have a collective zero games of Finals experience. Beyond LeBron, these Finals are distinguished by new faces, new cities, new team colors and, after an eight-day incubation period since the conference finals ended, an unprecedented level of anticipation.