Brevin Scullion and Kaled McCloud
Staff Writers
As the NBA season is dwindling down to its end and the NBA playoffs are almost finished, the two teams who won the Western and Eastern conference finals will face off in a series to become NBA champions. With all the changes this year from the beginning of the season with many stars leaving their old teams for new ones, trades upon trades, and the many injuries that this season has been riddled with, it has all come down to The Finals.
Students here at Jamesville-DeWitt High School weighed in on this year’s finals and some predictions they have for the series. “Even though I’d love to see the Cavs win, I don’t think that it will happen,” said sophomore Jason Pritts. Along with Pritts, many other students here at J-DHS think that it isn’t likely that the Cavaliers can pull it out. “It was a great run for LeBron [James], but it’s over for him,” said junior Ameen Iraqi. With them down 3-0, it looks like this prediction could come true.
However, there are some students here at J-DHS that have faith in LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers. “He’s the greatest of all time for a reason, he can pull it out,” said junior Shane Wright. Some students would rather see other teams than the Warriors and the Cavaliers. “I’m sick of seeing Cleveland in the finals, but I’m even more sick of Golden State, so I’m hoping for the Cavs,” said sophomore Will Davis.
The Golden State Warriors have their fourth straight finals appearance. It seems likely that they will end up repeating as champions with their polarizing superteam. “Warriors in four [games],” said senior Meg Hair, who sites the four NBA all-stars of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Kevin Durant are too much for Lebron and the Cavaliers.They’re led by an experienced head coach of Steve Kerr, who has five NBA championships as a player, and two as a head coach.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, led by LeBron James, have also made their fourth finals as a franchise, and look to get revenge on the Warriors after last year’s finals defeat. Even more amazing is that Lebron James has made his eighth straight finals appearance which ties him with Boston Celtics legend, Frank Ramsey. “LeBron’s the GOAT [greatest of all time], period,’’ said senior Kasey Vaughan. The Cavs have struggled a lot, not only during the playoffs but also during the regular season. They struggled against the Indiana Pacers in seven games, the Toronto Raptors in four games, and the Boston Celtics in seven games. But now they face their biggest challenge yet, the Golden State Warriors.
These two teams have a ton of history, making this the fourth straight year in which they are playing each other in the finals. The Warriors took the first and the most recent finals, while the Cavs won it all when they met up the second time. Their most memorable moment was during the 2016 NBA finals when the Cavs came back from trailing 3-1, and won the best of seven series 4-3. Senior Almir Salkic predicts a different outcome this year. “The Warriors are going to sweep the Cavs,” said Salkic.
No matter who comes out of this season as the NBA champion, it has been a very exciting one. From all the ups and downs throughout the season, it all lead up to a great playoffs and hopefully the trend continues in the finals. “It should be a really exciting finals this year,” said Pritts.