The best player or the best team?
That's what this rematch between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors will amount to when the NBA Finals commence Thursday in Oakland, Calif.
The Warriors are the greatest collection of NBA talent in the modern era, and that's no small statement, considering Tim Duncan and David Robinson played together in San Antonio and LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh became Miami's Big Three.
But Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson are something else entirely. That was illustrated in a league-best 67-victory season by the Warriors leading the NBA in offensive efficiency and finishing second in defensive efficiency.
The Cavaliers' regular season was a little bumpier. Cleveland finished with 51 victories, behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference standings. But the Cavs' 12-1 playoff march to the Finals showed once again that LeBron James might be the most dominant athlete in team sports today.
James is the queen on a basketball chess board: the piece that controls the action like no other. When one player on a championship team is simultaneously its best point guard offensively and power forward defensively, there's an inevitability about the outcome. ...
Except against these Warriors. It's Curry's and Thompson's shooting and Green's wide-spectrum defense and Durant's improvisational gift for creating high-percentage shots.
This one is the tiebreaker, after the Warriors won two years ago and the Cavaliers knocked off Golden State last June. The teams have a week off after mowing through their respective conferences.
Ten thoughts on what we're about to see:
