NBA Finals: A Bay Area Threepeat or Oh, Canada?

Once again, apologies for the late arrival to the party. It didn’t affect me with my NHL Stanley Cup prediction, so I’m thinking I might be okay here. Let’s look now at the first NBA Finals not featuring LeBron James since 2010:

 

(Raptors lead Warriors, 1-0)

Much like I did with the Blues against the Sharks, I am not shying away from making a pick of a team trailing in the series. As wonderful as the first Canadian major professional sports championship since 1993 would be, it’s hard to imagine we don’t see Kevin Durant in this series and equally difficult to envision Golden State doesn’t find a way to put it together to win its third straight title. Toronto brings the defense and has plenty of hunger, but you figure at some point the Warriors are going to rediscover their stroke. This should be a more entertaining series that the Finals has produced in recent years (that’s not saying much, though) but give the dynasty the nod here. Prediction: Warriors in 7.