By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Here we go again, in the middle of the NBA Finals. For the fourth year in a row Cleveland and Golden State are playing. I expected the Warriors to dominate and win another championship and so far, they have not disappointed.

The first two games were in Oakland and the Warriors maintained home court advantage. They won Game 1, 124-114 in overtime. The biggest moment of the game came with 4.7 seconds left in regulation. George Hill missed a free throw and J.R. Smith grabbed the offensive rebound in the lane. He ran behind the three-point line and dribbled the ball out, expecting a teammate to call a time out.

“I just thought we were going to call a timeout. Because I got the rebound, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t shoot it over KD,” Smith said of Kevin Durant. “If I thought we were ahead, I would have just held on to the ball so they could foul me. Clearly that wasn’t the case.”

LeBron James played amazing, scoring 51 points, snatching 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Kevin Love also added 21 points and 13 boards.

Game 2 was a blow out win for Golden State, 122-103. Steph Curry was the star of the game hitting an NBA Finals-record nine 3-pointers and scoring 33 points.

”Pretty special night,” Curry said, ”and hopefully some more special things happen and we get two more wins.”

Kevin Durant scored 26 points to go with 9 rebounds and 7 assists while also mainly guarding LeBron. Klay Thompson added 20 points playing on a tender left leg. Surprisingly, JaVale McGee scored 12 points, making all six of his shots in his first career NBA Finals start as Kerr made a lineup switch that proved spot on.

James followed up his 51-point performance in Game 1 with 29 points, 13 assists and 9 rebounds in a far tamer finals sequel and a much more lopsided one.

Kevin Love had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the cold-shooting Cavs, who will now try to gain some momentum back home. Game 3 is Wednesday night in Cleveland.

”We want to continue to be uncomfortable,” James said. ”Just because we’re going home doesn’t mean we can relax.”

Cleveland has looked so overmatched that I know they cannot win this series. I think the best chance they have to win a game will be Game 3. The home court advantage should provide a boost to the team.

They only have two-star players, James and Love. The absence of Kyrie Irving is very apparent in this series. The Cavs honestly have a roster loaded with role players. I’m not sure how J.R. Smith is good enough to be the starting point guard on a playoff team but he consistently plays most of the games.

Maybe it’s premature to says that the series is over because we have seen strange things occur. If you recall back in 2016 Golden State was 73-9, the best record ever. They had a 3-1 series lead over Cleveland but the Cavs came back and won the championship.

I know that will not happen this time but hopefully they can steal a couple of games to make this series competitive.