Updated at 11 p.m. ET
Stop me if you've heard this one: The Golden State Warriors will play the Cleveland Cavaliers in the best-of-seven NBA Finals.
For the fourth year in a row, the Warriors and the Cavs will face one another.
When the Cavaliers and Warriors met last year in the finals for the third consecutive time, it marked the first "threematch" in NBA Finals history. Do the math and this year's series marks the first "fourmatch."
The Cavaliers have been waiting since Sunday to find out which team they would play for the championship: Houston or Golden State. The Cavs beat the Boston Celtics 87-79 Sunday night to win the Eastern Conference finals.
In Houston Monday night, the Warriors pulled their act together and came back from a double-digit deficit to beat the Rockets 101-92 in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals.
NPR's Tom Goldman reports that, as great as the Warriors are, they are prone to stretches of basketball awfulness, and the first half was one of those stretches as they fell behind 11 points.
In the third quarter, point guard Stephen Curry scored 14 of the Warriors' 33 points as they turned the deficit into a seven point lead entering the final quarter.
The Warriors had a little help from the Rockets, who couldn't buy a 3-point basket. They missed 27 straight 3-point attempts.
After the game, The Associated Press reports: Curry said someone asked him if it's still special to get to the finals when it's the fourth time in a row.
"Yes," he said, "because it's really hard."
Over their previous three championship finals, the Warriors have the advantage, having beaten the Cavs in 2015 and 2017. Cleveland took home the title in 2016.
The opportunity for Cleveland to even the score begins later this week, with the Warriors hosting Game 1 on Thursday and Game 2 on Sunday.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDA5NTM4MTIyMDE0MTg3NDc2MTVlZjdmNQ001))
