In what is becoming an annual occasion, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors are meeting for the fourth consecutive season in the NBA Finals, which tip off on Thursday.
The Warriors prevailed in two of the first three season-ending head-to-heads, claiming the 2015 and 2017 titles, while the Cavaliers won in 2016.
If the Cavaliers are to even the ledger in 2018, it would require an even bigger upset than two years ago, when the Warriors set a regular-season win record and led 3-1 before Cleveland gained momentum from a Draymond Green suspension and stunningly swept the last three games.
Thanks to a lineup featuring All-Stars Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Green, Golden State are hot favourites.
But Cleveland say that's not their concern.
"We can't worry about what the outside guys are saying and who's being picked," Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said. "We know what we have here and what we're trying to do."
But the Cavaliers have superstar LeBron James, who is appearing in his eighth straight Finals series and has led two underdogs to titles in the past five years.
He helped the Miami Heat to the first of its back-to-back titles in 2012 as an underdog to the Oklahoma City Thunder before being the driving force in Cleveland's win over Golden State in 2016.
The Warriors imported Durant in free agency following their 2016 disappointment in part to deal with James.
So far, it's worked.
Durant outscored James in the first two games of the 2017 Finals, leading Golden State to victories that cleared the path to a relatively smooth series win.
On the eve of the rematch, Durant insisted it's not a one-on-one duel.
"I know my role on my team," he said. "I'm just trying to play in a way that will help us win a championship. That's the only thing I can do."
For the fourth year in a row, Golden State will hold the home-court advantage in the Finals, this time despite finishing second in the Western Conference to Houston in the regular season.
The Warriors won both head-to-heads in the regular season, prevailing 99-92 at home on Christmas Day, then 118-108 at Cleveland three weeks later.
While Golden State will be missing a key role player, Andre Iguodala, for the Finals opener, Cleveland might be without its second-best player, Kevin Love.
Iguodala remains sidelined due to a left leg bone bruise that kept him out of the final four games of the Western Conference finals series win over Houston.
He was evaluated this week and is making progress, according to the Warriors.
However, he continues to have nerve inflammation surrounding his left knee. He will be re-evaluated again before Game 2 on Sunday.
Love remains in the NBA's concussion protocol, and his status for Thursday is uncertain.
He collided heads with the Celtics' Jayson Tatum early in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, and he missed the rest of that game and all of Game 7.
"I'm still not sure," Lue said of Love's Game 1 availability. "He's going to go do some things today and see how he feels."
