8. 2017 NBA Finals: Golden State Warriors beat Cleveland Cavaliers (4-1)
Competitiveness: 4/10
Conclusion: 5/10
Overall excitement: 5/10
Average score: 4.6/10
The basketball world was set ablaze when Kevin Durant announced that he would be joining the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016. The Dubs were fresh off of an NBA-record 73-win regular season and fell just one game shy of winning the title. Now, they would be adding another MVP-caliber player to their team.
To no one’s surprise, the Warriors ran through the Western Conference. With their newfound firepower, the Dubs swept their way to the NBA Finals with little resistance. Here, they would once again face off against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
While the Warriors were off revamping their lineup, the Cavaliers had elected to run it back after their successful 2016 campaign. The reigning champs were having a dominant postseason of their own, losing only one game en route to their third straight NBA Finals appearance.
In all honesty, this series might have been an all-time great one had Durant not joined the Dubs. Instead, what we got was a massively one-sided affair, with Cleveland needing to score an NBA Finals-record 86 points in a half to steal a single game.
KD led all scorers with 35.2 points per game. His all-around stats of 8.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.6 blocks and 1.0 steal per game helped him earn the Finals MVP Award. Of course, his dagger 3-pointer over James in Game 3 was the most memorable moment of the season and likely his most iconic shot to date.
While this series as a whole wasn’t very competitive, we did still witness two of the best offensive teams of the decade go head-to-head. The Dubs might have won easily, but it was certainly a fun show to watch at times.