BOSTON — LeBron James was in no mood after his Cleveland Cavaliers won the Eastern Conference on Thursday night to talk about the upcoming matchup with the Golden State Warriors in the 2017 NBA Finals.
“I’m going to be honest, I’m not in the right mind to even talk about Golden State. It’s too stressful, and I’m not stressed right now,” James said after his team eliminated the Boston Celtics with a 135-102 Game 5 win at TD Garden.
“I’m very happy about our accomplishment. I have no discussion — Golden State, they’ve been the best team in our league for the last three years, and then they added an MVP. That’s all I can give you right now, because I’m happy and I don’t want to be stressed. They cause a lot of stress, and I’ll get to that point when we start to prepare for them.”
The Warriors and Cavaliers soon will meet in the NBA Finals for the third straight season. It’s the first time the same teams have met in the championship series three years in a row. Golden State won in 2015 and Cleveland won last season despite trailing 3-1 in the series.
These rivals split the regular-season series 1-1 with each team winning on its homecourt. They’ve both been nearly unstoppable in the playoffs, with the Warriors becoming the second team ever to go 12-0 through conference play and the Cavs dropping just one game en route to winning the East.
As James alluded to, the Warriors added former league MVP Kevin Durant to their team in free agency last summer. Durant has fit in quite well with the Warriors’ group of superstars and gives the Cavs another nightmare matchup to game plan for.
The Cavs didn’t add an MVP talent in the offseason, but Kevin Love is playing as good as he ever has with the Cavaliers during this playoff run, and the midseason addition of Kyle Korver has given Cleveland another excellent outside shooter.
The playoffs haven’t been too exciting through three rounds, but the NBA Finals has all the makings of a classic.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
