They meet again

Cavs, Warriors face off in Finals a record fourth straight year

The Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors continue to write new chapters in NBA Finals history.

For the fourth straight season, the Cavs and Warriors have advanced to the best-of-seven series to decide the NBA championship.

It’s the first time in 71 years of the NBA the same two teams have faced off in the Finals four years in a row.

A record was set last year with a third straight engagement in the Finals. Steph Curry and the Warriors overwhelmed LeBron James and Cavs, 4-1.

The Cavs claimed the 2016 title in dramatic fashion, becoming the first team in NBA history to rally from a 3-1 deficit and win the series, 4-3.

“This is for you, Cleveland,” James screamed after the Game 7 victory in Oakland gave Cleveland its first major professional sports title since the Browns on Dec. 27, 1964, beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, 270, in the NFL championship game.

The Warriors got the better of the injury-depleted Cavs in the 2015 Finals, winning that series, 4-2.

To get a sense of the unprecedented nature of this dominance of the NBA Finals by these two teams over a four-year span, consider the following points of Finals history:

• Not since 1997 and 1998, when the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls twice got the better of John Stockton, Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz, have the same two teams reached the Finals together in consecutive years.

• Before that, the same two teams reaching the Finals in consecutive years hadn’t happened since the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers did it in 1984 and 1985.

As spirited as is the Finals rivalry of recent vintage between the Cavs and Warriors, it doesn’t hold a candle to the one between the Celtics and Lakers.

These storied franchises have had 11 meetings in the Finals. Boston has won eight times, most recently in 2008. The Lakers have bettered the Celtics three times, the last time in 2010.

Golden State has won three NBA titles.