The Cavaliers and Warriors Game 7 showdown will tip off at 8 PM EST. The Cavaliers have come a long way to tie this series up. They've got all the momentum, having won the last two games. LeBron James lost his freaking mind in Games 5 and 6, putting his best consecutive games together in his career at the best time. The Warriors are suddenly banged up, with Andrew Bogut out for the series and Andre Iguodala nursing a bad back.
Nonetheless, that hasn't stopped Vegas from setting the line for tonight's game at -5 in favor of the Warriors. And there's plenty of reason to do that. The Dubs are at home, where they're nearly unbeatable.
But, our old friend Han Solo had something to say about being an underdog.
Of course, there's multiple historical factors that don't favor the Cavaliers. For example, home teams in Game 7's of the NBA Finals have won 15 of the 18 times they've happened. C-3PO might tell Han Solo that the Cavaliers only have a 16.6 percent chance of survival tonight.
But Han doesn't want to hear that.
Also, our friend David Zavac jumped in last night and accidentally inspired this whole post with this factoid. I stole his joke, because I don't have any original thought.
A road team has not won a Finals Game 7 since 1978. pic.twitter.com/J3bqgHWYdI
— David Zavac (@DavidZavac) June 19, 2016
The Warriors specific team history doesn't bode well for the Cavaliers either. If the Cavaliers want to win Game 7, they're going to have to hand the Warriors their third consecutive loss. That's not inherently a huge problem, until you realize that the Warriors haven't lost three straight since Mark Jackson was their head coach and they dropped three consecutive games in 2013-14 in early November.
Of course, Señor Solo is not a fan of such things.
This was all in good fun, but Han and Cavs fans have plenty of reason for optimism. Historical precedent says that the Cavaliers are in trouble, but these kind of stats don't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. We're operating on a one-game sample size tonight. As I said, the Cavaliers have plenty going in their favor. LeBron is looking like the best player in the world, Kyrie Irving has been playing out of his mind and the Warriors just finished sort of unraveling in Game 6.
Let's have some fun, and, of course, never tell me the odds.