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Kevin Love Doesn’t View Cavaliers As Underdogs In NBA Finals Against Favored Warriors

Ryan Ward NBA News

USA Today

The stage is once again set for another rematch in the NBA Finals. Both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers have advanced to the Finals to face each other for the third straight year with the rubber match surely to be the most exciting part of the postseason thus far.

Although the Cavaliers are the defending NBA champions coming into this matchup, LeBron James and company are the underdogs against the revamped Warriors. Cleveland will go on the road for the first two games of the series with Golden State -7 favorites in Game 1 on Thursday in Oakland, according to Sportsbook.ag.

Veteran forward Kevin Love, however, doesn’t view his team as the underdogs heading into Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Love believes the Cavaliers being underdogs is laughable because they’re trying to repeat as champions, via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin:

“The whole underdog thing is funny to me, because, yeah, at the end of the day we are defending our title,” Love said Saturday after the Cavs’ first practice in preparation for the Warriors since clinching a spot in the Finals. “We’re trying to repeat, which is so hard to do. I think we will use it as fuel, we will use it as motivation, but the idea of playing into it? It’s tough for me to say that is the case. I don’t feel like we’re underdogs. We match up well with them, and I think they’d say the same about us.”

Regardless of whether the Cavaliers are truly the inferior team, this Finals matchup is bound to be entertaining as well as heated. Draymond Green has already said how much he’s looking forward to facing Cleveland again and how determined he is to destroy them to avenge last year’s loss in which Green was suspended for one of the games.

Fortunately for both teams, no injuries or suspensions will impact the first game of the series. The only real concern for the Warriors is not having head coach Steve Kerr the bench due to his persistent back problems which have kept him out most of the playoffs thus far.

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