Cleveland Cavaliers Vs Golden State: How To Watch NBA Finals 2018

CLEVELAND, OH — For the fourth time in four years, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors will meet in the NBA Finals. Both teams survived their respective Game 7, win-or-go-home scenarios over the holiday weekend. Cleveland beat the Boston Celtics on Sunday, while the Warriors took care of the Houston Rockets on Memorial Day.

Golden State will be the heavy favorites in the fourth Finals match-up between the two squads. The Warriors added MVP winner and constant All-Star Kevin Durant to their team last year and went on to win the NBA Finals 4-1. This year's Cavaliers team limps into the final series of the season with a concussed Kevin Love, no Kyrie Irving, and a roster of unproven and unsteady role players.

The one glimmer of hope for Cleveland is that the best player in the world, LeBron James, still dons his No. 23 jersey for the Cavaliers. James' 2018 playoffs performance is already the stuff of legend. At age 33, the St. Vincent-St. Mary High School graduate is averaging 34 points per game, 9.2 rebounds per game and 8.8 assists per game. He's also notched two buzzer beating game winners and managed to sweep his conference's No. 1 seed. He played 48 minutes in Game 7 against Boston.

Still, Golden State may prove to be a mountain that even James can't summit. Ready to see what the Cavaliers can do? Here's everything you need to know to enjoy the 2018 NBA Finals.

What: Game 1 of the NBA Finals

When: May 31 at 9 p.m.

Where: Oakland, California

Where to Watch: ABC

How to Listen: WTAM 1100 and 87.7 FM (for Spanish listeners)

Match-Up to Watch: LeBron James vs the entire Golden State roster. There are plenty of compelling match-ups that will make or break the NBA Finals for Cleveland, but none is more heartbreaking and powerful than James' quest to drag his team to another title win. Many pundits have called this team LeBron's worst supporting cast since his 2007 Finals appearance. That team's second best player was...Boobie Gibson. Or maybe Larry Hughes. But you get the point.

James is facing down two of his most accomplished rivals — Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, both MVP winners, both incapable of consistently beating James by themselves. The two stars teamed up after Durant's Oklahoma City Thunder team coughed up a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference Finals to the Warriors; and the Warriors coughed up their own 3-1 lead to the Cavaliers in the Finals. Unable to swallow their respective defeats, the duo decided to team-up, with Durant abandoning his team to go play with Golden State. The revamped Warriors won last year's Finals 4-1, after grabbing a 3-0 lead.

James is starting to resemble the Sisyphus of Greek mythology, the titan forced to shoulder a boulder up a mountain, only to watch it tumble back down once it reaches the peak. It's a task Sisyphus repeats ad infinitum, a punishment from the gods.

James has pulled four straight Cavaliers teams into the Finals. In 2015, he had no Kevin Love and no Kyrie Irving against the Warriors. He still managed to squeeze out two wins. In 2016, with a healthy squad, James won Cleveland's first title in...let's say ever. In 2017, he tried to defend his championship against a Warriors team that went 72-9 in the regular season the year before and then added Durant. He lost 4-1.

He returns to the NBA Finals for the eighth straight time, his fourth consecutive time playing Golden State. The second best player on his team is now Love. The third is...Kyle Korver? Playoff pressure has wilted mid-season acquisitions Jordan Clarkson and Rodney Hood and made Larry Nance Jr. an inconsistent presence. The hole in the box score where Irving used to be is painfully large.

If James were to sniff victory in these NBA Finals, it would be his magnum opus. He would have to put on a performance that would shame even the urgent three-game winning streak he helped put together in 2016. Here's to hoping his boulder doesn't roll down the hill again.

Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch