After a one-week wait, the NBA Finals are here.
But that’s nowhere near as long as these teams have been waiting for a championship. For the Golden State Warriors, it has been 40 years since Rick Barry led them to what many believe is the greatest upset in NBA Finals history, a four-game sweep of the Washington Bullets in 1975.
For the Cleveland Cavaliers, it has been, well, forever. The Cavaliers entered the NBA in 1970 and didn’t even make the Finals until 2007, when they were swept by the San Antonio Spurs. Across all major sports, the city of Cleveland has been waiting for a championship since 1964, when Jim Brown carried them to an NFL championship.
There are plenty of questions for both teams as the highly anticipated series tips off tonight in Oakland. We try to answer some of them in our latest edition of the Three-Man Weave.
1. Aside from Stephen Curry, who is the most important Warriors player in this series?
CHRIS SHERIDAN, PUBLISHER: I wish the question said “person” instead. Because that person is Steve Kerr, who will need to match wits with David Blatt, who is a mastermind at making tactical adjustments on the fly that usually work out well. (Then again, sometimes he asks LeBron James to inbound.) But the question concerns a player, so my answer is Andre Iguodala. Probably not the answer most people would give, but Iggy has been one of the league’s best defenders for a long time 
now, and the Dubs cannot afford to put Draymond Green on LeBron James for 48 minutes without the risk of Tristan Thompson going for 20 points and at least a half-dozen offensive rebounds. Let’s see how long it takes Kerr to figure this out.
CHRIS BERNUCCA, MANAGING EDITOR: Draymond Green. I see why some would say Klay Thompson, who hasn’t been terrible in the playoffs but hasn’t been spectacular, either, scoring more than 20 points just twice since averaging 25 in the first round. Should he catch fire, that could present problems for the Cavaliers. But Green’s versatility on both ends is what makes the Warriors so tough. Golden State’s best lineup is when Green plays center, giving the Warriors stretch players at every position on offense and quickness and switching flexibility on defense. In the postseason, he has become their most reliable rebounder and second-best playmaker behind Curry. And he will be one of the handful of Warriors taking a turn on James.
PAUL LADEWSKI, COLUMNIST: The Warriors are better at both ends of the floor when Thompson is healthy and on his game, neither of which he has been lately. Consider this: When the “other” Splash Brother has been on the court this postseason, his team scores 109 points per 100 possessions and shoots 48 percent from the field. When Thompson is on the bench, the Warriors are a different team — 104 points and 42 percent. If Thompson displays any lingering effects from the concussion he suffered in Game 5 of the conference finals, the bulls-eye on sidekick Stephen Curry becomes that much larger. Thompson’s health and performance figure to have a lot to say about the outcome of the series.
2. Aside from LeBron James, who is the most important Cavaliers player in this series?
SHERIDAN: A case can be made for Matthew Dellavedova, because he might be able to defend Stephen Curry better than a hobbled Kyrie Irving. My thinking is that defense wins championshiops, and anybody who can get Curry out of his comfort zone needs to be utilized. But the guy who I will go with as second-most important is Tristan Thompson, who will outsize whoever he 
is matched up against if the Warriors use Draymond Green on LeBron James. Besides defense, what wins championships is extra possessions. And if Thompson is able to control the offensive glass against someone like Harrison Barnes, the six or seven extra possessions he can provide will make all the difference in the Cavaliers’ wins.
BERNUCCA: Tristan Thompson, for several reasons. There will be long stretches when both teams pull centers Andrew Bogut and Timofey Mozgov, which will leave Thompson as the biggest player on the floor. He has shown throughout the postseason that he can change games with his offensive rebounding, which could be a major factor in this series. If the Warriors cannot keep Thompson off the offensive glass, they will have trouble getting out in transition, which is often the ignition key to their offense. And extra offensive rebounds means more positive possessions for the Cavaliers, who have to win the turnover battle to win the series.
LADEWSKI: The pick here is Kyrie Irving, but only if he is reasonably healthy — and that’s at least a medium-sized if right now. As otherworldly as LeBron James can often be, he won’t beat the deeper, more talented Warriors by himself. Someone has to ride shotgun, and Irving is the obvious choice. Otherwise, I’ll take J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson. As we know, Smith can shoot the Cavaliers into the game as easily as he can shoot them out of it. Yet he’s the kind of streaky distance shooter who can carry his team for extended stretches. Thompson gives his team a physical presence that it didn’t previously have. He is an upgrade over Kevin Love as an interior defender and offensive rebounder, which translates into more second-chance opportunities at one end and fewer opportunities in transition at the other.
3. Who scores more points in Game 1, Curry or James?
SHERIDAN: One of them will be in the 30s, and since James has been struggling offensively this postseason, especially from 
3-point range, the safe pick here is Curry at home. The MVP is going to be juiced in front of his home crowd, and there is really no one who can stop him because his range extends so far behind the 3-point line. You can count on maybe 50 percent of his buckets being threes, and I think he’ll hit a half-dozen of them in Game 1. If you ask me who will have the most fourth-quarter points, I will go with LeBron.
BERNUCCA: Curry, whose points come in bunches due to the 3-pointer. In this postseason, Curry has had two 40-point games and another with 39. In those three games, he averaged 22.7 shots. He scores nearly 15 points per game on the three-ball alone.
Yes, James gets to the line more. But he is 12-of-68 from the arc in the postseason and is smart enough to realize that he has to attack the rim to make Cleveland’s offense more effective. Now who will be responsible for more points? That would be James, who is averaging nearly 10 assists in his last eight games, with many of those setting up teammates for open threes.
LADEWSKI: Curry struggled in Game 1’s earlier in his career. Not so this season, when he averaged 30.0 points in three series openers. Also remember that James has connected on only 18 percent of his 3-balls this postseason, while the reigning Most Valuable Player checks in at ridiculous 44 percent. Of course, if James suddenly regains his stroke, he’s capable of a big number. The Warriors are concerned bout his ability to get teammates involved, and for that reason, I expect them to play a lot of zone defense and dare him to shoot at the perimeter. Until James proves he can make them, however, Curry is the safer bet