Cavs face Warriors on second leg of back-to-back once again

Seriously, what did the Cleveland Cavaliers do to make the basketball gods upset? Because for the second time this season, the Cavs have to face their 2015-2018 rivals, the Golden State Warriors, on the second night of a back-to-back.

Back in mid-February, the Cavs went on a road trip out West where they visited the Phoenix Suns, the Denver Nuggets, the Portland Trail Blazers, the LA Clippers, and the Warriors. Now, the Cavaliers had a day off between Phoenix (Feb. 8) and Denver (Feb. 10), then Denver and Portland (Feb. 12), however, the Cavs had to play the Clippers on Feb. 14 and then the Warriors on Feb. 15.

Luckily this time, the Cavs don’t have to play Kawhi Leonard and Paul George the night before facing Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. Instead, they entered Spectrum Center to take on the Charlotte Hornets on April 14 before returning home on April 15 to play Golden State.

Coincidentally, the two times that the Cavs and Warriors play each other this season was on the 15th of the month, Feb. 15 in the Bay Area and set to be on April 15 in Cleveland.

In the first meeting between these two former rivals, Golden State smashed Cleveland by 31 to the tune of  129-98. The score was tied at the end of the first quarter 32-32 but for the final three quarters, the Warriors outscored the Cavs 97-66. The leading scorer for the Cavaliers was guard Collin Sexton with 23 points, whereas guard Steph Curry was the leading scorer for the Warriors with 36 points.

So how will the Cavs fare against the Warriors this go-round?

Coming into Thursday’s game, the two teams could seemingly be heading in two different directions. The Warriors are currently a fringe playoff team as they sit in ninth place in the Western Conference with a record of 27-28 while the Cavaliers sit in 13th place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 20-34.

Both teams will be coming into tonight’s game on the second night of a back-to-back, though, in fairness.

As stated earlier, the Cavaliers were in Charlotte taking on the Hornets. Meanwhile, the Warriors were in Oklahoma City taking on the Thunder. Both Cleveland and Golden State got victories in their respective games as the Cavs defeated the Hornets by a score of 103-90, while the Warriors thrashed the Thunder 147-109.

Granted, the animosity between these two teams has all but disappeared, but, the two fanbases still hold on to the memories.

This season, Warriors superstar guard Stephen Curry is averaging 30.7 points per game and is dishing out about 6.0 assists, and Andrew Wiggins, Green and company are formidable with their ball movement.

Even though both teams are going to be coming into Thursday’s game off of victories from Wednesday, the Warriors seem to have some momentum building, whereas the Cavaliers are a very inconsistent team which means Golden State is more likely than not to get the victory.

That said, the Cleveland Cavaliers have gotten back Kevin Love, who seems to be getting comfortable, and Matthew Dellavedova recently, and getting Jarrett Allen and Larry Nance Jr. back should pay dividends for the Wine and Gold, with their defensive abilities. And plus, Golden State not having James Wiseman in the fold, who is likely out the rest of this season (torn mensicus) is a blow for their interior efforts, with them being so thin there already, anyhow.

In any case, with the shooting capabilities of the Warriors, and Curry rolling along of late/the effect he has on opposing defenses, I’d still expect Golden State to win this one.

The Cavs have had injuries, yes, but their inconsistency has still been an issue, regardless.