The NBA Finals are officially set, and the Golden State Warriors will face off against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 on June 4. Stephen Curry was able to lead his Warriors over the Houston Rockets in the friendly confines of Oracle Arena in Game 5 by a final score of 104-90 to secure his first NBA Finals appearance.
It was a masterful regular season from Curry and the Warriors, and the reigning MVP is set to take on the greatest player currently in the NBA in a seven-game series. LeBron James shares mutual respect with Curry, but they are about to have a fight to the death. Cleveland is an extremely difficult matchup for the Warriors, but they are going to head into the series as the favorites to come away with a championship.
One thing is for sure, Curry has proven himself to be ready to take on King James and try to dethrone him.
During his series against the Rockets, Curry ended up averaging 31.2 points, 5.6 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game. He shot a blistering 51.5 percent from the field overall and 49.1 percent from behind the 3-point arc. Houston’s defense is nowhere near the type of unit that the Cavaliers have, but Curry has without question proven himself to be one of the deadliest scorers in recent NBA history.
Now that the Finals have been set, it is time to look ahead to what Curry will need to do in order to be victorious against James. He is certainly ready for this type of a stage, and he cannot afford to change anything heading into the biggest series of his entire career.
James has been to five straight NBA Finals counting this year, and the experience that other members of the Cavaliers have will also be important. Golden State is much less experienced when it comes to the NBA Finals, and that is going to be something that they have to overcome. There is no denying the talent that they have and the depth that they have put together, but it will all come down to Curry.
Without Curry’s impressive offensive showing, the Warriors would have had much more difficulty with the Rockets. He has struggled at times in the playoffs, especially against the Memphis Grizzlies. It was very obvious that the Warriors were a completely different team without his dynamic scoring.
Cleveland has shown throughout their playoff run so far that they are more than capable of stepping things up on the defensive end of the court. They embarrassed the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals and swept them while making it look easy.
Golden State has every piece in place to make the run that they need to make and knock the Cavaliers off. It has been an impressive run for them, but being able to knock off the Cavaliers is much easier said than done. James is going to come with a renewed aggression that he showed a bit of during the Hawks series, but he has shown time and time again that he can kick things into a completely new gear in big games.
Expect to see a very competitive series from the start, and for both teams to leave everything they have on the court. Curry will need to play some of his best basketball, while also stepping up as a leader and bringing his teammates together.
Evan Massey is the Green Bay Packers beat writer for www.RantSports.com, and also contributes across the NFL, MLB and NBA portions of the site. Follow him on Twitter at @Massey_Evan and like him on Facebook.