2018 NBA Finals
The 2018 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2017–18 season and conclusion of the season's playoffs. In this best-of-seven playoff, the defending NBA champion and Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors swept the Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers four games to zero. The Warriors became the 7th NBA franchise to win back-to-back championships, joining the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, and Miami Heat. This year's Finals was the first time in any of North America's four major professional sports leagues that the same two teams met for the championship four years in a row. This was also the first time that a team was swept in the NBA Finals since 2007, in which the Cavaliers were also the losing team. LeBron James, in his eighth consecutive NBA Finals appearance and ninth appearance overall, suffered the second Finals sweep of his career, having also played in the 2007 Finals. Warriors small forward Kevin Durant was named NBA Finals MVP for the second straight year.
| ||||||||||
| Dates | May 31 – June 8 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MVP | Kevin Durant (Golden State Warriors) | |||||||||
| Eastern Finals | Cavaliers defeated Celtics, 4–3 | |||||||||
| Western Finals | Warriors defeated Rockets, 4–3 | |||||||||
The Warriors entered the series having home-court advantage with a regular season record of 58–24, compared to the Cavaliers' regular season record of 50–32. Entering the matchup, the Warriors were also noted by various sports media outlets as one of the biggest NBA Finals favorites in recent history. The 2018 Finals began on May 31 and ended on June 8. The series broke the record set by the 2014 NBA Finals for highest average scoring differential per game (15.0) for an NBA Finals series.