{"id":3562,"date":"2016-10-21T01:47:12","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T06:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=3562"},"modified":"2017-01-27T15:42:48","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T21:42:48","slug":"cleveland-and-golden-state-rematch-in-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=3562","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland and Golden State Rematch in NBA Finals?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Most of\u00a0the prognosticators have the current\u00a0National Basketball Association\u00a0Champions Cleveland Cavs meeting the 2015 champions Golden State Warriors in the 2017 Finals.\u00a0 I would tend to agree but I do not believe one of the teams will make the show in late spring, early summer.\u00a0 It has to do with the depth of the Warriors and a belief that one or more of the \u201csuperstars\u201d\u00a0on the rosters in the Bay will be\u00a0saddled with the tag DNP, injury.\u00a0That is right sports fans,\u00a0I am calling it right\u00a0now, and for all those that have\u00a0penciled in Golden State\u2019s second NBA Title in three years, you will be out of luck.<\/p>\n

Fact is, Golden State is banking on their big time high powered studs to be well and in great health\u00a0come playoff time.\u00a0 They have to be, as this current edition of Warriors have severe depth problems, a lack of a power inside game, and two players that would have the tag as less than dependable with regard to injuries.\u00a0 Stephan Curry is one ankle injury (turn, dislocation, break) from being on the shelf for a significant amount of time. It is not like he has the best structural ankles in the league. Far from it.\u00a0 And with Kevin Durant already taking his former team out of a possible title with his broken Jones bone, it is not out of the possibility that the other Jones bone on the other foot will suffer a breakage also.\u00a0 These two are not the most sturdy players in the league and if Coach\u00a0Steve Kerr has to use his front line players extra minutes (as of a lack of a bench) injuries do and will happen. Going from 28-32 minutes a game to 34-38 is a game changer.\u00a0 Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, the other two stars, will need to stay injury free also.<\/p>\n

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\"87ec8b8e-3d93-410a-8d2b-659414012126-large16x9_sc_sabonis_thunder\"<\/a>
OKC Rookie Domantas Sabonis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Western Conference Pre-season Rankings<\/p>\n

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  1. Golden State<\/li>\n
  2. San Antonio<\/li>\n
  3. Portland<\/li>\n
  4. Los Angeles Clippers<\/li>\n
  5. Memphis<\/li>\n
  6. Oklahoma City<\/li>\n
  7. Utah<\/li>\n
  8. Dallas<\/li>\n
  9. Houston<\/li>\n
  10. Sacramento<\/li>\n
  11. Minnesota<\/li>\n
  12. New Orleans<\/li>\n
  13. Phoenix<\/li>\n
  14. Los Angeles Lakers<\/li>\n
  15. Denver<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Eastern Conference Pre-season Rankings<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \u00a0Cleveland<\/li>\n
    2. Toronto<\/li>\n
    3. Boston<\/li>\n
    4. Charlotte<\/li>\n
    5. Miami<\/li>\n
    6. Milwaukee<\/li>\n
    7. Detroit<\/li>\n
    8. New York<\/li>\n
    9. Indiana<\/li>\n
    10. Washington<\/li>\n
    11. Orlando<\/li>\n
    12. Chicago<\/li>\n
    13. Brooklyn<\/li>\n
    14. Atlanta<\/li>\n
    15. Philadelphia<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Western Conference Finals:\u00a0 San Antonio vs Los Angeles Clippers<\/p>\n

      Eastern Conference Finals:\u00a0 Cleveland vs Toronto<\/p>\n

      NBA Title:\u00a0 San Antonio over Cleveland<\/p>\n

      MVP:\u00a0 LeBron James<\/p>\n

      Playoffs MVP:\u00a0 Kawhi Leonard<\/p>\n

      Scoring Champion:\u00a0 James Harden<\/p>\n

      Fantasy Leader:\u00a0 Russell Westbrook<\/p>\n

      Rookie of the Year:\u00a0 Buddy Hield<\/p>\n

      Coach of the Year:\u00a0 Greg Popovich<\/p>\n

      Top Five players in the world by rank:<\/p>\n

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      1. Lebron James<\/li>\n
      2. Russell Westbrook<\/li>\n
      3. Stephan Curry<\/li>\n
      4. Kevin Durant<\/li>\n
      5. Kawhi Leonard<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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        \"9583321-buddy-hield-nba-preseason-dallas-mavericks-new-orleans-pelicans-850x560\"<\/a>
        Buddy Hield-New Orleans Photo: fansided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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        Feature photo:\u00a0 (AP PHOTO\/ERIC GAY)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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        <\/div>\n

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        <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        \u00a0 \u00a0 Most of\u00a0the prognosticators have the current\u00a0National Basketball Association\u00a0Champions Cleveland Cavs meeting the 2015…<\/p>\n

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        <\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[487,285,287,662,56,326,58,293,53,54,311],"class_list":["post-3562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-buddy-hield","tag-cleveland-cavs","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-greg-popovich","tag-james-harden","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-kevin-durant","tag-lebron-james","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-russell-westbrook","tag-stephen-curry"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":188,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3562"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3570,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions\/3570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}