The first game between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers just ended with GSW winning with 104 points against the Cavs’ 89 points. This game marked the beginning of the teams’ rematch of last year’s championship and the Warriors are looking to cap their historic 73-win regular season by keeping the Larry O’Brien Trophy in the Bay Area, while the Cavaliers are seeking to avenge their loss in last year’s Finals and bring home the franchise’s first championship.
Photo from the official NBA Facebook page.
Before things get too tense between the fans of both teams on social media, here are some fun facts that you might not know about the NBA Finals yet:
14 – This series marks the 14th time in NBA history that the same teams are meeting in The Finals in consecutive seasons.
6 – Cleveland’s LeBron James is set to play in his sixth straight Finals, the first player to do so in 50 years. The other seven players to accomplish the feat played for the Boston Celtics: Bill Russell (10 straight Finals appearances), Tom Heinsohn (nine), Sam Jones (nine), K.C. Jones (eight), Frank Ramsey (eight), Bob Cousy (seven) and Satch Sanders (six).
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1,077 – Golden State made an NBA-record 1,077 three-pointers this season, becoming the first team in league history to reach 1,000.
2 – Golden State’s Steve Kerr is looking to become the second head coach in NBA history to win titles in each of his first two seasons. The only coach to do it is John Kundla, who won the 1948 and 1949 titles with the Minneapolis Lakers.
9 – Nine international players are on Finals rosters. The Cavaliers feature Matthew Dellavedova (Australia), Kyrie Irving (Australia), Sasha Kaun (Russia), Timofey Mozgov (Russia) and Tristan Thompson (Canada). The Warriors feature Leandro Barbosa (Brazil), Andrew Bogut (Australia), Festus Ezeli (Nigeria) and Anderson Varejao (Brazil).
1B – This season, the NBA became the first professional sports league to surpass one billion social media likes and followers globally across all league, team and player platforms.
75M – LeBron James is the most followed NBA player on social media with nearly 75 million followers combined across Facebook (22.5 million), Twitter (31.2 million) and Instagram (21.2 million).
So, who are you rooting for? Share your love for your team with us – but please be nice to the fans of the other team! :p
