Rivalry takes center stage again on Christmas Day
In the lobby of the Warriors’ practice facility, plastered on a wall overlooking the media work area, is a 4-by-7-foot reprint of one of the most iconic photographs in franchise history: Kevin Durant shooting the three-pointer that sealed Golden State’s Game 3 win over the Cavaliers in the 2017 NBA Finals.
Warriors staffers put up that enormous picture of Durant midair, LeBron James feebly trying to contest the shot, within 48 hours of the team’s championship-clinching Game 5 victory at Oracle Arena. The intent was clear: to remind anyone who visits Golden State headquarters that the Warriors have exorcised the memory of their 2016 Finals loss to Cleveland.
As Golden State prepares for its third straight Christmas Day game Monday against the Cavaliers, some players and coaches want to pretend that Cleveland is just another opponent on the schedule. That huge photo in the lobby, however, suggests otherwise. In a league of ever-changing allegiances, the Warriors and Cavaliers are the closest the NBA comes to a modern-day rivalry.
It is why ABC again made Cleveland-Golden State its featured game on the biggest viewership day of the NBA regular season. Each of the past two Christmases, more than 10 million people watched the two heavyweights. Now, thanks to Kyrie Irving forcing his way to the Celtics, a newlook Cleveland roster should add intrigue to the annual matchup.
“It’s always fun when it’s a marquee matchup like that, especially in the regular season,” Warriors guard Klay Thompson said. “Games like this are easy to get up for. We’re all looking forward to it.”
This matchup has been must-see TV for only three years, but it already has enough drama to pack a “30 for 30” documentary: the starstudded casts, the motivation for payback, the historic implications.
In 2015, after winning 16 more games than the previous season, the Warriors beat an injury-depleted Cleveland team in six games for the franchise’s first NBA title in 40 years. In June 2016, Cleveland overcame a 3-1 series deficit — something no team had done in Finals history — for its city’s first major pro sports championship in 52 years.
Along the way, Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5 for what the league called a “retaliatory swipe” to James’ groin; James cemented another spot in NBA lore with a rundown block on Andre Iguodala late in Game 7; and Golden State realized it needed to be better.
Less than an hour after that Game 7 loss, while sitting at his locker, Green told Durant over text that Durant possessed all the Warriors were missing. Two weeks later, Durant announced on the Players’ Tribune website that he was signing with a Golden State team that had ousted his Thunder from the playoffs.
In June, after the Warriors and Cavaliers steamrolled through the first three rounds of the postseason, Durant led Golden State to the championship by averaging 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.6 blocks in five games. Never before had the NBA Finals pitted the same two teams three years in a row.
The plot twist came in July, when Irving asked Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert to trade him. Isaiah Thomas, the centerpiece of Boston’s August deal for Irving, failed his physical and learned he’d miss much of the season with a hip injury. Only a year before James would become a free agent, the Cavaliers scrambled to assemble a supporting cast that could get them through Thomas’ absence and ultimately entice James to re-sign.
As James adjusted to playing alongside Dwyane Wade, Jeff Green and Jae Crowder, Cleveland stumbled to a 5-7 start. Now, after winning 19 of their past 21 games, the Cavaliers are only 1½ games behind Irving’s Celtics for the Eastern Conference lead.
“They’re obviously a great team,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said. “They’ve changed a little bit. They’ve added some bench players who’ve been really good for them, and LeBron is playing as well as he’s ever played. Great team. It should be fun on Monday.”
Stephen Curry’s sprained right ankle diminishes Monday’s star power, but it also could make the matchup more suspenseful. The Warriors are 15-9 against Cleveland since it brought back James before the 2014-15 season. Curry’s injury helps equal out Thomas’ absence, paving the way for Durant against James — a matchup of two of the best players in this generation — to take the focus.
Durant told The Chronicle last week that he views his late three-pointer over James in Game 3 of June’s Finals as the moment he solidified his status as an all-time great. To be known as an all-time dynasty, Golden State might need to beat the Cavaliers again in June.
Monday is a preview of the types of games that build legacies.
“If we’re playing the right way, if we’re playing the way the Warriors are capable of playing, I don’t think there’s much too many people can do,” Nick Young said.