A Tale of Two Beliefs: How the Cavs’ Faith Sealed the Warriors’ Fate

Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue brought his downtrodden team together and spoke about what he believed was their ultimate fate despite being down 3-1.

The Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t supposed to win after going down 3-1 to the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals. History said that it was impossible. The Warriors’ 73-9 record said the trophy was rightfully theirs.

The Cavs’ predicament hollered that they should just roll over and die.

Everything went against the Cavs except their date with destiny.

The Cavaliers mounted the most furious comeback in NBA history with three straight wins against the Warriors, two of them at Golden State, to win their first ever NBA championship.

The franchise had never hoisted the trophy in its 47-year history and it was Cleveland’s first major sports title since 1964.

No team had ever come back from 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals, much less against the winningest regular-season team ever.

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Just a week ago, with elimination staring them in the face, Cavaliers head coach

brought his downtrodden team together and spoke to them about what he believed was their ultimate fate.

He had a better vision in mind than the one painted for them by the fans, the media, and their opponent. This was captured beautifully in the NBA’s mini-movie for Game 5 of the series.

"“The two most important days of your life is when you were born and when you discover the reason why you were born. And I think we were born to be champions,” he said to his team that was on the brink of another second-place finish."

That wasn’t their destiny, Lue believed.

Destiny came back to Cleveland on July 10, 2014 when LeBron returned to his native NBA city after a four-year, on-the-job training on how to become a champion with the Miami Heat.

He believed that he could bring a championship to Cleveland with the core lineup that included him and Kyrie Irving, to be followed later by All-Star Kevin Love.

The belief was strong in these three.

Less than a year later, however, with Kyrie and Kevin going down in the playoffs, the injury-depleted Cavs still made it to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the healthier Warriors four games to two.

During the 2015-16 season, the Cavs struggled through inconsistent play and it was one of the reasons why, despite having the Eastern Conference’s best record at the halfway mark of the season at 30-11, Cavs coach David Blatt was fired.

He was replaced by his then-assistant coach, Lue.

It was thought that the midseason coaching change would solve the Cavs’ problems. But the team’s play would remain maddeningly erratic, perhaps shaking even James’ belief that his team was destined to win a championship.

The Cavs would finish the season with an Eastern Conference-best 57-25 record, going 27-14 under Lue.

Meanwhile, the Warriors came out of the gates roaring to start the 2015-16 season, never losing a game until their 25th outing as thoughts of their place in history became the hottest debate in town.

No team had ever challenged the Chicago Bulls’ 72-10 record from the 1995-96 season until now. The Dubs were on their way to obliterating that record the way they were playing.

And boy did they play.

Led by the record-breaking shooting prowess of their leader, Stephen Curry, the Warriors looked unstoppable, routinely blowing out teams by 20 and 30, night in and night out.

Practically everyone in the media outside of Cleveland believed that the championship was already in the bag for Golden State.

The playoffs and the Finals only needed to be played before we crowned the Warriors as champs once again. Everyone, it seemed, believed this including, it appeared, the Warriors themselves.

But a chink in their armor was showing. Not too big, but just enough for the most keen-eyed observers to notice.

The Warriors, possibly not feeling as motivated, would relax against some of the NBA’s weaker teams, thinking that their talent was enough to get them a win against inferior competition.

As a result, eight of the Warriors’ nine losses were against the lower tier teams with San Antonio the only championship contender among those to defeat them.

The other half of the Warriors’ Splash Brothers backcourt, Klay Thompson, declared himself the best shooting guard in the NBA. It may be true, but it was not something he should’ve said himself.

Slowly but surely, the Warriors seemed to believe that winning the championship was their God-given right based on how well they were playing in the regular season.

They appeared to believe that the trophy was already in their possession, with the succeeding games just mere formalities to be played before they could boast about their achievement.

Sports Illustrated writer Lee Jenkins noted how coach Steve Kerr thought that his Warriors “were trying to fast-forward the series and skip to the celebration” before Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Kerr, a four-time champion with the Bulls and the Spurs, hammered the point home in one of their film sessions.

"“It doesn’t just happen,” he said. “It’s harder than that.”"

And as Jenkins pointed out, “A banner is not a birthright, not even for a team that went 73–9.”

It explains why the Warriors lost only nine games in 82 during the regular season and why they eventually lost nine games as well in just 22 games during the postseason.

Some of the Warriors fans also seemed to believe the same about their team, that it was their right to win the championship, and not something that they had to earn.

When Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5 after hitting James in the groin in the previous outing, some Bay Area fans went to the Cavs’ team hotel to boo him as he went down the bus.

At the arena, as noted by ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, other fans came early during the shootaround, just to boo the Cavs’ ring leader. It was one of the most bizarre things he had ever seen in his professional career, thought Breen.

And then there was Ayesha.

Curry’s wife tweeted her counterpoint to LeBron’s statement of taking the “high road” after Game 4. Later, she asked if the refs could be suspended. Finally, there was the explosion.

Mrs. Curry decided enough was enough in Game 6 when her husband fouled out of the ball game and she declared that the NBA was rigged.

Despite deleting her tweet and apologizing for it eventually, the dam had already been broken. Though many had defended her, including Steph himself, she became an instant target for the media.

It also underscored what may have been the mindset of the team and the people around them, “The championship is our right. It belongs to us.”

Back in the Cavaliers’ locker room, moments before the must-win Game 5, Lue added to his already confidence-building statement.

“We got a tough road to conquer, but we can do it,” he said. “We’re down 3-1 but we got to have the mindset that when we go into this game tonight, we’re going to win.”

Lue’s pep talk was beautifully captured in the NBA’s Game 5 mini-movie, and hung like a mantra in the minds of his players in that game. And it was most apparent in the epic performances of the team’s two main superstars, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

Both players scored 41 points in that game to bring down their deficit to the Warriors to just one game, 3-2. It was displayed in one of the most difficult places to play in, Oracle Arena, where many had fallen prey to the Warriors’ history-defining run.

But they still needed to win Game 6 to stay alive in the series.

No problem. James simply duplicated his 41-point outburst a few days later and added to his already glowing resume with another masterful performance that included 11 assists, eight rebounds, four steals and three blocks.

All of these were in the background of Game 7—dubbed by the great Bill Russell as the two greatest words in sports. At the end of six games, all of them decided by double-digits, the total score for each of the teams was tied at 610.

This had never happened before at the end of the sixth game tied at 3-3, setting up what would be a seventh game whose final winning margin would be the final margin that separated both teams.

James was calm throughout the two days while waiting for game day. When it finally arrived, he was ready. But the game had to be played in hostile territory with a capacity crowd that was just as tense as the players on the court.

Everyone, it seemed, was tight, including James who finished with five turnovers for the game with a couple of early ones in the first quarter. Yet as the game wore on, it was apparent that this night belonged to the King.

With the game close late in the fourth, the Cavs orchestrated a pick-and-roll for a mismatch with James guarded by center Festus Ezeli. Twice. During the first switch, James pump-faked at the three-point line and got Ezeli to commit. Foul.

James calmly made all three free throws, a rare feat for the otherwise free-throw challenged Cavs leader who was making only 65 percent of his freebies throughout the playoffs at the time.

It was a sign of sorts of what lay ahead for the Warriors.

The next time down the court, LeBron took a three from the same side of the court and swished it with 4:53 left in the game putting the Cavs up by two, 89-87.

Later, with the game tied at 89 for what seemed like an eternity, Andre Iguodala rebounded the ball in what was to be a fast break that would break the tie. He passed the ball to Curry and received it back from him for an easy layup. Or so we thought.

With the last ounce of strength in his superhuman physique, James ran the court as fast as he could, eventually catching up to Iguodala at the rim with a vicious chasedown rejection that will forever be remembered in NBA history as “The Block.”

After Irving found his stroke in the third, it gave the Cavs’ young point guard all the confidence he needed to pull off the biggest shot of the game in the fourth.

A defensive switch found him being guarded by Curry, then Irving drained a back-breaking three with 53 seconds left, a blow from which the Warriors would never recover.

Down came the Warriors and with it their hopes of capping off their historic season with the championship trophy. As great as their season was, everyone on the team was disappointed with how it ended.

Everything they accomplished seemed hollow without the ring to cement their place in the record books as one of the greatest teams in history.

The Cavs, on the other hand, cried tears of joy. Even with the belief that they were destined to be champions, it is an unbelievable moment when one’s hopes and dreams become reality.

Despite winning the championship two previous times with Miami, the tears didn’t fall in either one of the celebrations for LeBron James. In Cleveland uniform, however, they came bursting forth almost as soon as the final buzzer sounded.

James would fulfill a promise he made to the city two years earlier.

"“Cleveland! This is for you,” he cried out loud while being interviewed by an also emotional Doris Burke."

He believed the city would one day experience a championship the moment he came back home. After Lue’s Game 5 inspirational talk, everyone else bought in to the idea that they could be champions by the end of the Finals.

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Ultimately, everything came down to what each team believed about itself and their goal.

The Warriors believed it was their right to win the championship. The Cavs believed it was their destiny.

In the end, destiny won out over right.

And this was only made possible because of the belief that they could and would become champions. LeBron believed it. The coach believed it. The rest of the players believed it, too. And finally, the city believed in them and with them.

Faith is a powerful thing. It can win you a championship and it can secure your place in the annals of NBA history.