LeBron, Cavaliers Winning Even One Game Against Warriors Would Be 'Huge Upset'

The Cleveland Cavaliers winning even one game against the Golden State Warriors would be a "huge upset," according to former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy.

The Cavaliers will meet the defending champions in the NBA Finals for the fourth straight year as they look to prevent a third championship in four years for Steve Kerr's men.

However, despite the form of LeBron James who is continuing to win for his side despite the odds, this is notably one of the weaker Cavaliers sides who will be facing the Warriors, especially as they will be without Kyrie Irving this time, who departed for the Boston Celtics last year.

After winning their first round series 4-3 against the Indiana Pacers, the Cavaliers swept the Toronto Raptors before being taken the distance again by the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals — despite the Boston side being without star men Irving and Gordon Hayward.

Meanwhile, the Warriors only lost two games en route to the Western Conference Finals where they were taken all the way by the Houston Rockets before winning Game 7 on Tuesday night.

The Cavaliers were able to pull off the unthinkable when they came back from 3-1 down to defeat the Warriors 4-3 in the 2016 NBA Finals but with Kevin Durant in the Bay Area side's ranks, Tyronn Lue's side were only able to win one game last year as the Warriors almost completed a historic sweep in the playoffs.

And Van Gundy believes the gap between the two sides is even greater this year.

"This is the biggest difference that I remember between two teams heading into the Finals in my time in the NBA,” Van Gundy told reporters Tuesday, as per the Washington Post. "I can’t think of a bigger gap from a team perspective. It will be interesting to see how competitive LeBron James can make this Finals, but any game they get in this Finals would be a huge upset, to me."

The former New York Knicks coach also feels whoever won the Western Conference Finals would have gone on to win the playoffs as the Warriors are currently huge favorites to retain their championship.

"We’re all going to try to paint a picture of there’s a chance that Cleveland could win, and when you get to the Finals, and that’s really, really hard to picture in your own mind how a team could win, it’s a letdown," he added. "To me, Houston wasn’t just one half away from advancing to the Finals. They were one half away from winning a championship."

"I think no matter who came out of the West and who came out of the East, the Western Conference winner would have been the prohibitive favorite, for many different reasons. If we want to see a different Finals, then we’ve got to have other teams win or we’ve got to set up a different system and not make it Eastern Conference and Western Conference, but make it based upon the records."

Game 1 of the NBA Finals will take place Thursday at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.