In Vegas, the Warriors are heavy favorites to defeat LeBron and the Cavaliers. But, by our metrics, will it be a closer series than the experts think?
The Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers will square off in the NBA Finals for the fourth consecutive year, but not much about this installment suggests that it will be the same old story.
For starters, according to Basketball-Reference's Simple Rating System (a rating that takes into account average point differential and strength of schedule, denominated in points above/below average, where zero is average), both teams are the worst versions of themselves over the history of this recent rivalry:
The Warriors still look like the better team by a fairly considerable margin, but their SRS for the 2017-18 season (5.