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Having beaten the Oklahoma City Thunder in a thrilling seven-game 2016 Western Conference Finals series, the Golden State Warriors will advance to their second consecutive NBA Finals series for a highly-anticipated rematch with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The championship series will begin with the Warriors hosting the Cavs at Oracle Arena on Thursday at 6 p.m.
|
Game |
Date |
Location |
TV Network |
Streaming |
Time (PST) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Game 1 |
Thursday, June 2 |
Oracle Arena - Oakland, CA |
ABC |
WatchESPN |
6 p.m. |
|
Game 2 |
Sunday, June 5 |
Oracle Arena - Oakland, CA |
ABC |
WatchESPN |
5 p.m. |
|
Game 3 |
Wednesday, June 8 |
Quicken Loans Arena — Cleveland, OH |
ABC |
WatchESPN |
6 p.m. |
|
Game 4 |
Friday, June 10 |
Quicken Loans Arena — Cleveland, OH |
ABC |
WatchESPN |
6 p.m. |
|
Game 5* |
Monday, June 13 |
Oracle Arena - Oakland, CA |
ABC |
WatchESPN |
6 p.m. |
|
Game 6* |
Thursday, June 16 |
Quicken Loans Arena — Cleveland, OH |
ABC |
WatchESPN |
6 p.m. |
|
Game 7* |
Sunday, June 19 |
Oracle Arena - Oakland, CA |
ABC |
WatchESPN |
6 p.m. |
*If necessary
The Warriors beat the Cavs in both of their regular season meetings this season, playing a close game on Christmas Day before blowing them out in Cleveland on January 18. However, Golden State would be wise to learn from their series against Oklahoma City, who they also swept during the regular season: after firing head coach David Blatt and promoting Tyronn Lue, Cleveland seems to have figured out a few things since January that could make them a more formidable opponent than they were in previous meetings. If nothing else, adding stretchy big man Channing Frye at the trade deadline will provide them with better spacing than they had before.
Of course, the big thing everyone will be talking about is how the Cavs will have both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love available this year after losing both of them to injury during last year's postseason. We'll be diving into that and more leading up to Game 1, but for now we'll take early predictions: who do you think will win the series and in how many games?