NBA Finals 2017 Schedule: Game 5, Game 6, Game 7 Dates And Start Times

The 2017 NBA Finals looked like they might be over last Friday, but now there’s a chance that the champion won’t be crowned for another week. The Cleveland Cavaliers are looking to win three straight games against the Golden State Warriors in the rubber match of the league’s biggest rivalry.

Game 5 of the NBA Finals is scheduled for Monday night at 9 p.m. EDT at Oracle Arena. If Cleveland is able to force a Game 6, that contest will be played Thursday night at 9 p.m. EDT at Quicken Loans Arena. Another victory for the Cavs would send the series back to Oakland, California for a deciding Game 7 at 8 p.m. EDT Sunday night. Every game will be on ABC.

READ: NBA Finals 2017 Game 5 Prediction, Betting Odds

Cleveland is still a long way from extending the series much further, and they aren’t expected to win more than one game. Golden State is a heavy favorite in Game 5 at home, where they have looked unstoppable. The Warriors have yet to be beaten at Oracle Arena in the playoffs, and they defeated the Cavs by a combined 41 points in Game 1 and Game 2.

The Cavs had their chance to win Game 3, holding a six-point lead with less than three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The Warriors stormed back to win the contest, forcing Cleveland to try and make the first-ever 3-0 series comeback in NBA history.

Cleveland won Game 4 handily, and they have made history against Golden State before. In the 2016 NBA Finals, the Cavs became the first team to ever trail 3-1 and win a playoff series.

"Believeland is not going to give up," Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue told reporters after Game 4, "and we're going to keep fighting. We're going to keep scrapping."

A second straight win for the Cavs would certainly give them more confidence, putting them in the same position that they found themselves a year earlier. The biggest difference in 2017, of course, is that the Warriors have Kevin Durant. If Golden State does win the series, Durant will almost certainly win the NBA Finals MVP award.

“Obviously, this is our second opportunity to close this thing out and you don’t want to keep letting the series prolong,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said, via The New York Post. “So you have to come out with a killer instinct and a punch-face mentality.”

The series began on Thursday, June 1, and it will span at least two weeks if the Cavs can pull off the Game 5 upset. Cleveland won two games on the road during last year’s improbable comeback.

READ: Cleveland's Struggles Fuel LeBron To Lakers rumors

LeBron James enters Monday’s Game 5 with one of the best stat lines in NBA Finals history. He’s averaging a triple-double with 31.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 10.5 assists per game against the Warriors. He’s scored at least 25 points on at least 50 percent shooting in 15 of his 17 playoff games.

If the Warriors had won Game 4, they would’ve become the first team to go 16-0 in a single postseason.