Cavaliers–Warriors rivalry

• 1. Introduction

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  The Cavaliers-Warriors rivalry pits the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Golden State Warriors, and its strangest chapter arrived quietly on the 23rd of January, 2009. That night, LeBron James beat Golden State with a buzzer-beating shot, months before Stephen Curry had played a single NBA game. Nobody watching could have guessed that within six years the two franchises would meet in four consecutive NBA Finals. Nor could they have guessed that a Splash Brothers-era Golden State team would win three of those four championships while Cleveland claimed the other. What turned two teams with a long, uneven history into the defining rivalry of an era? And how did a missed free throw, a suspended defender, and a chase-down block all become part of basketball lore along the way?

• 2. The Long Prelude

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  From 1970 to 1991, the Warriors won the season series 37 times to Cleveland's 22, an era of near-total dominance. The Cavaliers answered with a 10-game winning streak from 1992 to 1996, cutting that lead to 37-32.

  The 2006-07 season turned into a landmark year for both franchises. Golden State entered the playoffs as the 8th seed and beat the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round, the first 8-seed ever to eliminate a 1-seed in a best-of-7 series. Cleveland reached its first NBA Finals that same spring, though the San Antonio Spurs swept them. Getting there required an outsized effort from LeBron James, who scored the Cavaliers' final 25 points of Game 5 in the Eastern Conference Finals against the top-seeded Detroit Pistons, sending the game to double overtime.

  James left Cleveland for the Miami Heat from 2010 to 2014, joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to chase championships. Miami reached the Finals all four seasons, winning titles in 2012 and 2013, while Golden State sat in the draft lottery. Cleveland used the top pick of the 2011 draft on Kyrie Irving out of Duke. Still, Golden State swept both meetings that season behind a rookie Klay Thompson and a young Stephen Curry, the pair who would carry the franchise later in the decade. Golden State led the all-time head-to-head series 53-50 through the end of the 2013-14 season.

  James returned to Cleveland as a free agent in the 2014 offseason, instantly reshaping the Eastern Conference. The Cavaliers acquired All-Star forward Kevin Love from the Minnesota Timberwolves that summer, sending Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett to Minnesota in return. Paired with an already All-Star Kyrie Irving and a rising Tristan Thompson, Cleveland became the favorite to win the East. Golden State, meanwhile, had built its own identity around the backcourt of Curry and Thompson, a pairing already nicknamed the Splash Brothers, running a fast, three-point-heavy offense.

  Neither team had yet met in a Finals. That would change within a single season.

• 3. The First Finals Clash

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  Cleveland stumbled out of the gate in 2014-15, opening the season at a dismal 19-20. Kevin Love struggled to adjust to a reduced role, and shooting guard Dion Waiters chafed at being a secondary scorer. In January, LeBron James missed two weeks with back and knee injuries, the longest absence of his career to that point.

  That same month, Cleveland traded Waiters to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a three-team deal that also included the New York Knicks. In return, the Cavaliers landed three-point shooter J. R. Smith and defensive specialist Iman Shumpert, and separately added rim protector Timofey Mozgov. All three became central to Cleveland's climb back to the top of the East.

  Golden State opened that same season 21-2, including a 16-game winning streak that made it the league's early favorite. Stephen Curry emerged as an MVP candidate, building on his All-Star campaign from the year before. Klay Thompson developed into one of the league's premier shooting guards and two-way defenders. Draymond Green averaged roughly 12 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists a night, while rookie head coach Steve Kerr drew Coach of the Year buzz.

  The two teams split their season series, each winning on its own home floor. Curry led all players in All-Star voting with 1,513,324 votes, with James finishing second at 1,470,483. Curry went on to win the MVP award, averaging 23.8 points, 7.7 assists, and 2.0 steals a game while shooting 44.3 percent from three-point range. James finished third in that voting, averaging 25.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 7.4 assists. Both men made the All-NBA First Team alongside teammates Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson. Cleveland closed the regular season 53-29, and Golden State finished 67-15.

  The two clubs combined to lose only five games across the first three playoff rounds. When they met in the Finals, it marked the first time in league history that both teams were led by rookie head coaches, Kerr and David Blatt. Kevin Love separated his shoulder in Game 4 of the first round against the Boston Celtics and was lost for the postseason. Kyrie Irving fractured his kneecap in overtime of Game 1 of the Finals itself.

• 4. Cleveland Breaks Through

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  Golden State opened 2015-16 by winning its first 24 games, the most in NBA history without a loss to begin a season and the second-longest winning streak ever, trailing only the 33-game run of the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers. By the All-Star break, the Warriors sat at 48-4, the best record at that point in league history, including a lopsided 132-98 win over Cleveland on Martin Luther King Day fueled by 35 points from Curry.

  Curry, Thompson, and Green all earned All-Star selections that season. Golden State went on to break the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' record of 72-10, finishing 73-9, and Curry became the first unanimously elected MVP in NBA history.

  The playoffs proved harder. Golden State beat the Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers in five games each, at times without an injured Curry, before Oklahoma City pushed the Western Conference Finals to seven games. The Thunder even built a 3-1 lead before the Warriors fought back to win the series.

  Cleveland faced its own turbulence. Kyrie Irving was still recovering from the kneecap injury suffered the previous Finals and missed much of the first half of the season. At 30-11, with the team otherwise performing well, David Blatt was fired midseason and replaced by Tyronn Lue. Cleveland closed the year with a league-best mark in the East of 57 wins, then swept the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks before beating the Toronto Raptors in six games to reach a second straight Finals against the defending champions.

  Down in the series, Irving and James both scored 41 points in Game 5, the first time two teammates had each reached 40 in a single Finals game. James matched that total again in Game 6, a rout built on a 31-9 opening burst, and Curry was ejected late after fouling out, the first player to do so in a Finals game since Shaquille O'Neal. James, in turn, became the first player since O'Neal to score 40 or more in consecutive Finals games.

  Game 7 in Oakland stayed close throughout. With the score tied 89-89 and roughly a minute and fifty seconds left, James chased down Andre Iguodala to block a potential go-ahead layup. Moments later, Irving hit a three-pointer over Curry to put Cleveland ahead, and Kevin Love locked down Curry on the final possessions. Cleveland held on to win 93-89, the franchise's first championship and the first time any team had rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win an NBA Finals. James recorded a triple-double, only the third player in NBA history to do so in a Finals Game 7, and was unanimously named Finals MVP after leading both teams in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks.

• 5. The Durant Era

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  On the 4th of July, 2016, Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder to sign with Golden State as a free agent. In his first season with the Warriors, he averaged 25.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.6 blocks per game.

  Golden State lost a Christmas Day meeting with Cleveland 108-109, then answered on Martin Luther King Day by blowing the Cavaliers out 126-91. The Warriors finished the season 67-15, the first team in NBA history to win at least 67 games in three straight seasons. They then swept through the Western Conference playoffs at 12-0. That made them the third franchise ever to sweep all three rounds, joining the Los Angeles Lakers of 1988-89 and 2000-01, and the first to do it by a 12-0 mark rather than 11-0, since the first round was no longer best-of-five.

  Cleveland answered by going 12-1 through its own conference bracket, sweeping the Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors before beating the Boston Celtics in five games in the Conference Finals. James entered the Finals averaging 32.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 2.2 steals, and 1.4 blocks a game, shooting 57 percent from the field and 42 percent from three. He would average a triple-double across the series.

  Kevin Love also played some of his best basketball as a Cavalier that postseason, averaging 17.2 points and 10.4 rebounds while shooting 46 percent from the field and 44 percent from three. Kyrie Irving set a career playoff high of 42 points in Game 4 of the Conference Finals against Boston. Golden State and Cleveland entered the Finals with a combined record of 24-1, the fewest combined losses any two Finals teams had carried in.

  Down 0-3, James and Irving drove Cleveland to a 137-116 win in Game 4. The Cavaliers scored 49 points in the first quarter and 86 in the first half, both series records, and made 24 three-pointers, breaking the record of 18 the Warriors had set in Game 2.

  Durant had his ring. More records were still to fall between these two franchises.

• 6. Four Straight Finals

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  In 2017-18, Golden State won its two regular-season meetings against Cleveland, and for a third straight Martin Luther King Day, beat the Cavaliers, this time 118-108. Fueled by Stephen Curry's return from injury in the postseason, the Warriors beat the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans in five games each, then overcame a 2-3 series deficit against the Houston Rockets to reach the Finals.

  Cleveland also struggled in the second half of the season after overhauling its roster at the trade deadline with younger players. The Cavaliers still beat the Indiana Pacers in seven games, swept the Raptors, and came back from a 2-3 deficit against the Boston Celtics.

  Game 1 saw several lead changes and 51 points from James, but the game went to overtime after a controversial reversed charging call against Durant and a missed George Hill free throw with 4.7 seconds left. J.R. Smith rebounded that miss and dribbled out the clock, mistakenly believing his team was ahead. Golden State dominated overtime to win 124-114.

  Tristan Thompson was ejected and later fined for shoving a basketball into Draymond Green's face during a scuffle in the closing seconds. James later revealed he had punched a whiteboard in the locker room after the loss, giving himself a bone contusion on his right hand that went undisclosed until after Game 4.

  Game 2 went to Golden State 122-103, with Curry breaking his own Finals record by making nine three-pointers. Game 3 stayed close until Durant scored a career playoff-high 43 points to lead a 110-102 win, while Curry shot just 3 of 16 from the field. James set a record with his tenth Finals triple-double in that game.

  Golden State finished the sweep in Game 4, winning 108-85 as Durant scored 20 points and Curry added 37. It was Golden State's second consecutive championship, third in four years, and sixth overall, with Durant winning his second straight Finals MVP after averaging 28.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 7.5 assists on 52.6 percent shooting. James led both teams in scoring and assists, averaging 34 points and 10 assists, in a losing effort.

  It was the last series LeBron James would play for Cleveland.

• 7. After The Rivalry Cooled

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  LeBron James left Cleveland for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2018 offseason, his second departure from the franchise. The Cavaliers rebuilt around Collin Sexton, their first-round pick in 2018, and later Darius Garland, their first-round pick in 2019, while keeping veterans Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love in the locker room.

  Cleveland finished 19-63 in 2018-19 and 19-46 in 2019-20 before that season was suspended by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cavaliers were not among the 22 teams invited to resume play. Head coach Tyronn Lue was fired six games into the 2018-19 season. Former Michigan coach John Beilein took over before 2019-20 but resigned midseason, and assistant J.B. Bickerstaff, named interim coach, became full-time head coach for 2020-21.

  Cleveland nearly returned to the playoffs in 2021-22, losing to the Atlanta Hawks in the play-in tournament for the 8th seed. Golden State, meanwhile, reached a fifth straight Finals in 2019 chasing a three-peat but lost to the Toronto Raptors 2-4. Durant and Andre Iguodala left that offseason, for the Brooklyn Nets and Memphis Grizzlies respectively, though Iguodala later joined the Miami Heat.

  Injuries to Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry compounded those losses, and Golden State finished an NBA-worst 15-50 in the shortened 2019-20 season, also missing the restart. At the 2022 All-Star Game, Curry was booed by the crowd after being announced as a Warriors selection, then responded by scoring 50 points and winning game MVP.

  Four months later, with Iguodala back in Golden State after two seasons in Miami and Curry and Thompson healthy again, the Warriors beat the Boston Celtics in six games, a rematch of the 1964 Finals, for a fourth title in eight years and seventh overall.

  Both franchises made the 2023 playoffs, the first time since 2018 that both had clinched postseason seeds and the first time since 1998 that Cleveland made the playoffs without James on the roster. Golden State, helped by a record-setting 50-point game from Curry in Game 7, eliminated the Sacramento Kings before losing in six games to a Lakers team led by James. Cleveland was eliminated by the New York Knicks in five games.

  Early in the 2024-25 season, a 9-0 Cleveland team hosted a 7-1 Golden State club and built a franchise-record halftime lead of 83-42, tying the largest halftime scoring total in team history. Cleveland won 136-117 to become the first team in NBA history to win its first ten games while scoring at least 110 points in every one of them, then extended the run to 15-0, a mark second only to Golden State's 24-0 start in 2015-16. Cleveland's coach that season, Kenny Atkinson, had been a Warriors assistant the year Golden State won its 2022 title, and became the first coach in league history to go undefeated through his first 15 games with a new team.