2018 NBA Finals: 5 Reasons why the Golden State Warriors will blitz the Cleveland Cavaliers
The Golden State Warriors sealed their 4th successive trip to the NBA Finals after a hard-fought 4-3 series victory over the top-seeded Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals. Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry combined for 61 of the Warriors' total of 101 in Game 7 and helped them over the line with some fantastic individual plays.
It has long been surmised that either of the Rockets or the Warriors will be thorough favorites against any team that emerges from the Eastern Conference. LeBron James led his undermanned Cleveland Cavaliers to 2 crucial wins in Games 6 & 7 against a young and spirited Boston Celtics team to ensure his progression to an 8th successive Finals series.
But The King will no longer be the vaunted favorite. Bookies have given the Cavs a mere +650 odds of winning the Larry O'Brien trophy, in addition to handing -1000 odds to the Warriors. There are a couple of important factors into why the betting on this series is so lopsided, and we take a look at all of them through the next few pages:
#1 The Cavaliers don't have an answer for Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant has always been a nightmare matchup for LeBron in the Playoffs. While he lost the Finals series with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012, Durant stuck 30.6 points on 54.8% shooting from the field and 39.4% on 3s to emerge as the top scorer of the series.
He upped the ante in the Finals last year, outplaying LeBron on both ends of the floor while averaging 35.2 points per game on 55.6% shooting from the field and a spectacular 47.4% from beyond the arc.
He could barely miss, and several times he scored the kind of tough shots that left Kerr bemused at the audacity of the Easy Money Sniper and Ty Lue clutching at straws while trying in vain to plug all the holes the rest of the Warriors were punching into the Cavs' defense.
Durant is pretty much still the same player on offense, but his defensive game is now better than it ever was. He is a legitimate rim-protector in lineups without a true center for the Warriors, and he is comfortable switching onto virtually any guard in the game. He's the ultimate basketball cheat code to have on your side on the hardwood, and no other team in the league has anyone who can dominate the game every minute like Durant does.