Finals pick up where they left off

OAKLAND » After a summer highlighted by Kevin Durant’s decision to leave Oklahoma City for the star-laden Golden State Warriors, a six-month regular season and three rounds of playoffs, the NBA Finals are right back where they ended last June.

Not that anyone expected different.

Take III of the NBA Finals trilogy between Golden State and the Cleveland Cavaliers gives Stephen Curry and Draymond Green a chance to avenge last year’s Warriors collapse and LeBron James the opportunity to add a fourth title in his chase of Michael Jordan’s six.

Perhaps most noteworthy, it gives Durant the chance at a first championship and validation for his decision to leave the Thunder and join the league’s latest super team.

“I can’t go out there and do everything on my own or I can’t go out there and just let my teammates do all the work for me,” Durant said Wednesday, a day before the series opener. “I got to do my part and we all got to make it come together as a group.”

This matchup has seemed ordained since James walked off the court in Oakland last June, any

Police are investigating after someone spray painted a racial slur on the front gate of LeBron James’ home in Los Angeles on the eve of the NBA Finals.

An unidentified person spray painted the N-word on the front gate of James’ home in the Brentwood neighborhood Wednesday morning, said Capt. Patricia Sandoval, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

James wasn’t at the home at the time, but the property manager told officers that they believe the incident was captured on surveillance video, Sandoval said.

James said, “if this is to shed a light and continuing to keep the conversation going on my behalf then I’m OK with it . ... My family is safe, they’re safe and that’s the most important. But it just goes to show that racism will always be a part of the world, a part of America . ... ”

having delivered his native northeast Ohio its first major team championship since 1964.

James had won two titles as part of another “super team” in Miami but last year’s crown meant even more to his legacy.

“I’m not in the ‘prove people wrong, silence critics’ department no more,” James said. “I got a promotion when I got to the 30s. At the end of the day, I know the way I’m built. My only motivation is to be able to compete for a championship every single year.”

The Warriors have been right there the past two years, winning the franchise’s first title in 40 years in 2015 and then blowing a 3-1 lead last year to put a sour ending on a record-break-