It’s Game Day!

You know that creepy feeling of having been somewhere before? It’s not so creepy for the Golden State Warriors.

On this date a year ago, they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland to win their first NBA title since 1975. They did it in six games. This very Thursday evening the Warriors are again in Cleveland, leading the NBA Finals 3-2 in games, with a chance to win their second consecutive title.

Odd? Consider this. No team has won back-to-back titles by clinching the series on the road both times since the Boston Celtics in 1968-69 (oddly, both times against the Los Angeles Lakers). The star of the Lakers, Jerry West, is a Warriors adviser.

The Warriors were without Draymond Green in Game 5 due to a suspension for the accumulation of flagrant foul points (don’t ask). Green is the defensive answer to LeBron James, who scored 41 points (as did Kyrie Irving) in Cleveland’s Game 5 victory by 15 points.

“Everybody’s helped with Draymond being on the floor,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “So that will be nice to have him back. We missed him the other night. We were disappointed in our performance without him. We thought we could still get it done, but we didn’t. So now it’s time to recharge the batteries and get ready.”

Green could very well the MVP, as much for how he has played as for how much he was missed when he didn’t. A year ago, Andre Iguodala was the MVP of the NBA Finals last year and he hadn’t started a game all season until Kerr put him in the lineup for the fourth game.
Odd. Very odd. Kind of like déjà vu.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman