After having met in the past two iterations of the NBA Finals, there is no love lost between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. Hoping to avenge a blown 3-1 lead in last year’s finals, forward Draymond Green, who has been largely blamed by the letdown, was outspoken about his willingness to get back to the highest stage and work out unfinished business with the Cavs.
The often-loud Warriors forward said he wanted to not just beat the Cavs, but ‘annihilate’ them. The soft-spoken Kevin Love took the high road and gave a rather political answer to this sharp-eyed call to war.
“He’s competitive,” Love said. “He’s one of the most competitive players in the league and he kind of spoke this into existence. He’s a guy who said he wanted us, and he has us starting next Thursday and you know he’s a guy who brings it every single night, so now with the way the Finals went down last year if I were in his shoes, I would want the same thing.”
Love has been an integral part of a brilliant Cleveland postseason run, becoming the leader of the three-point artillery that has gotten them through a relatively breezy playoff series. The 6-foot-10 stretch-four has taken his 37.3 percent three-point field goal percentage and kicking it up a few notches, shooting a blistering 47.5 percent through 13 games this postseason — leading the Cavs with 38 made threes.
Culminating in this collision course as most experts had expected from the start, the two teams will make history by meeting a third straight time in the NBA Finals and settling the score in a best-of-three series.