There was the expected public feel that Stephen Curry and LeBron James would again be headlining another NBA Finals confrontation between their respective teams—Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers.
The signs were very clear; LeBron was lording it over in a spectacular regular season, while Curry returned from injury looking better than ever.
Not to worry. The road to the 2018 Finals appeared open, trouble-free for both the defending champion Warriors and the tough Cavaliers.
Two initial road games for both favored squads in the NBA conference championships have turned the road to the Finals tight and rough.
Cleveland got it in the neck away from home when it allowed itself to be beaten back-to-back by the Celtics in Boston. Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue readily accused Boston of resorting to gangland tactics to beat them.
Golden State, on the other hand, did win its first encounter against Houston, but got kicked in the butt, as coach Steve Kerr said, in suffering a horrible defeat in the second encounter against Houston.
What went wrong? Did Golden State and Cleveland come unprepared for the expected high-intensity contests?
“They’re gooning it up,” cried Cleveland mentor Tyronn Lue.
“They came out and played a great game, we got what we deserved,” rued defending champion coach Steve Kerr of Golden State.
Looking back at the initial conference championship results, it would show Boston prevailed riding on youth, composure, unity and fire, qualities that spelled the team’s character.
Houston, on the other hand, was able to regroup and find solid teamanship to recover splendidly from the opening-game loss.
With the prevailing uncertainty, both Cleveland and Golden State can be expected to return to action ready to wage war at home.
“We’ve got to do the same thing,” said the Cleveland team coach. “We’ve got to be tougher mentally, physically.”
“We got what we deserved,” said Golden State coach Steve Kerr. “They kicked our butts, no other way to say it.”
Kerr can only be expected to order all-out toughness from everybody in order for the Warriors to regain their original value.