Wait is over: Time for Cavaliers-Warriors for third time

Here they go again. For the third consecutive year, it’s Cleveland and Golden State in the NBA Finals. The 2016 champions vs. the 2015 champions. The first “threematch” — rematch of a rematch — in the league’s final round. It’s the matchup most expected, the matchup most predicted, and probably the matchup the Cavaliers and Warriors wanted as well.

Let the hype, and the waiting, begin: Game 1 isn’t until Thursday.

“I’ve been very blessed the last few years to be a part of this league and play on the big stage,” said Cleveland star LeBron James, who reached the Finals for the eighth time, including each of the past seven years. “But we’re going to enjoy this for a couple more days before we have to lock in on that juggernaut out west.”

The Cavaliers and Warriors split their two meetings this season, both winning at home. Cleveland won by one on Christmas Day, while Golden State prevailed by 35 on Jan. 16.

Golden State led the league with 67 victories this season and is 27-1 in its past 28 games — including 12-0 in the Western Conference playoffs, the first time a team has gone this deep into an NBA postseason without losing. Cleveland, which seemed sleepy at times in the regular season, went 12-1 in the Eastern Conference playoffs that ended with a victory over Boston on Thursday night.

“Playing in this league, you can’t take anything for granted,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. “Thirty teams suit up every year trying to get to this point, and only two teams do. So you have to appreciate it. … We need to understand the privilege that we have and the opportunity that we have

to play in the Finals again, to have the opportunity to win a championship.”

Already, the back-andforth has begun.

Cleveland Coach Tyronn Lue was quoted earlier this week saying he thought Boston’s offense was “harder to defend” than Golden State’s. Golden State acting coach

Mike Brown, when asked about it Thursday, said: “That’s his opinion. It’s cute.”

And there will be reminders of the Halloween party that James threw for the Cavaliers last fall, with “3-1 Lead” — a nod to what the Warriors lost in last year’s Finals — prominently displayed on the drum set.

Much more of that will likely follow over the next week, filling time before Golden State plays host to

Game 1. But there’s also a clear respect level between the clubs as well.

For James, the Finals are an annual rite.

For Durant, this trip ends a five-year wait.

Durant’s only other time in the Finals was 2012 when he was with Oklahoma City. The Thunder lost to Miami in five games, a series that made James a champion for the first time.

At the very moment

where the clock ran out in that series, the person James was embracing was Durant — telling the then-Thunder star, his offseason workout partner at the time, how proud of him he was.

Durant’s decision to leave the Thunder for Golden State as a free agent last summer meant the Warriors went from mere overwhelming favorites to win the West again to super-duper-overwhelming favorites to win the West

again. They got a big scare in late February when Durant had a left knee injury, but he’s back and the Warriors have rolled since.

The storylines are many. Can James win his fourth ring? Can Durant win his first? Will the Warriors be haunted by letting last season’s 3-1 lead slip away? Will they become the first team in NBA history to go undefeated in a postseason? How will Golden State guard Kyrie

Irving? How will Cleveland try to contain Curry?

There’s also the irony that Brown, the first coach who took James to an NBA Finals in 2007 — Cleveland was swept by San Antonio — will now coach against him, likely in the same leading role he’s had for Golden State since head coach Steve Kerr was forced to take a break because of continued problems with his surgically repaired back.