The Golden State Warriors swept its entire assignment in the Western conference and the Cleveland Cavaliers, after absorbing a hit as they blinked in game 3, recovered to deal the Boston Celtics a 4-1 beating in the Eastern Conference Finals.
This would be the third straight finals duel by the Warriors and the Cavs. Both teams split the first two meetings. Golden State capitalized the absence of Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving in 2015 to bring home the trophy. Cleveland returned the favor in 2016 when Golden State’s Andrew Bogut sustained an injury a series-ending injury and Draymond Green was suspended because of technical fouls limit in the critical game 5. Cleveland came back down 1-3 to take the crown.
Is this match-up getting monotonous, or are you enjoying the cold-hearted rivalry between these two giants?
Well, it really depends on one’s preference on how he or she loves the game of basketball. One may say the domination of only two teams is destroying the league but another might never want this to end.
For those who love to root for just one team or one player like their life depends on it, and that team or player happens to be any of the Warriors or the Cavs, they must be in cloud nine right now.
This writer understands. Doing my younger days, I used to bleed green during the Bird vs Magic, Celtics vs Los Angeles Lakers days. The feeling of a fan who sees the team he or she roots for reach the finals and faces a hated nemesis that is as strong is the climax of cheering for the team.
I was just barely introduced to the game of basketball and quickly got a taste of the rivalry between these two teams. It is this situation that made me each time want to grab a copy of the broadsheets my father used to bring home just to see the sports page (Web surfing was still part of sci-fi movies at that time).
Then as my interest in sports and sports writing widen, I was introduced to and learned about “Bulls vs Pistons”, “Pacers vs Knicks”, and “Crispa vs Toyota”.
Even the conflicts of rivalries outside of basketball were so much interesting to follow and find out the outcome. I really like what I read about Ali vs Frazier and how Erik Morales vs Marco Antonio Barrera unfolded before my eyes.
So, if one is fond of seeing two giants in a sport collide in the biggest arena, the so called “clash of the titans”, Cavs-Warriors should not be boring at all.
On the other hand, there are those who would stay seated to watch every NBA game whenever possible, whether it is the finals or the regular season. They are the true fans of the game of basketball.
They love watching matches no matter what teams are playing. All they want is good and competitive hard court action.
This writer also understands. When I became a full pledged writer of this paper, I had to shed my team and player preferences to become an effective story teller.
By doing so, I had to monitor and watch more teams that I don’t normally follow before during the regular season.
I don’t have the same enthusiasm of watching them knowing they can’t beat the Cavs or the Warriors no matter how hard they play.
Many other notable things happened during the regular season outside of the Warrior-Cavs. Russell Westbrook and James Harden dueled for MVP honors, Westbrook recorded a historic triple-double season average, the diminutive Isaiah Thomas and Celtics’ emergence from obscurity including knocking out the Cavs for the top seed in the East, Devin Booker scoring 70 for the Suns, among others.
All of these were drowned by the Cavs and Warriors due to lack of competitiveness by their teams for the NBA title.
I find it difficult to watch games of other teams, no matter how competitive they are, when it is quite known that they do not possess the capability of finishing higher than second in their respective conferences.
There was no competition for this year for the Cavs and Warriors. The gap between these two teams and the rest in their respective conferences, were like the valleys between the Arizona Canyons.
Although the right teams advanced to meet their respective conferences, the Cavs and Warriors are just too much for the Celtics and the Spurs. A little competitive balance here and there would benefit the general audience’ satisfaction of their craving.
That being said, it now doesn’t matter which kind you belong because you are going to enjoy this finals. The Warriors vs Cavs is upon us starting tomorrow, June 2.
And if other teams don’t do anything drastic to change their line-ups, this match-up will remain for around the next five years.
By: ARMANDO M. BOLISLIS