NBA Finals 2016: Known Schedule of Dates and Predicting Championship Game

The 2016 NBA Finals tip off on Thursday, and it appears a rematch will be in store when the best from the West and East battle for the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

Despite two losses in Toronto to the Raptors, the Cleveland Cavaliers eventually closed out the Eastern Conference Finals in six games with two dominant performances at the finish. Cavs superstar LeBron James will compete in his sixth straight NBA Finals.

After trailing 3-1 in their Western Conference Finals series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the defending champion Golden State Warriors have gotten off the mat. Saturday's 108-101 road victory set up a decisive Game 7 at Oracle Arena, where Golden State lost only twice in the regular season.

Below is an overview of the NBA Finals schedule, along with a preview of what to expect in the Association's grand finale.

Game	Date	TV
1	Thursday, June 2	ABC
2	Sunday, June 5	ABC
3	Wednesday, June 8	ABC
4	Friday, June 10	ABC
5*	Monday, June 13	ABC
6*	Thursday, June 16	ABC
7*	Sunday, June 19	ABC

2016 NBA Finals Preview, Predictions

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Even if the Thunder manage to keep Game 7 versus Golden State close, the crunch-time implosion from star point guard Russell Westbrook in Game 6 is enough to discount OKC's chances for an upset.

ESPN's Skip Bayless highlighted how the reckless abandon with which Westbrook plays, and for which he's often applauded, came back to bite the Thunder at the worst possible time:

Westbrook needs to play less chaotic, do less of a hero-ball act and improve his overall efficiency as a scorer and distributor to fully realize his immense potential. Until then, Oklahoma City won't get over the hump—and it already may be too late if Kevin Durant decides to leave in free agency this summer.

As for the NBA Finals, what an epic matchup it would be if Golden State does indeed become the 10th team to successfully rally from a 3-1 playoff series deficit.

Golden State would be attempting to close out a historic 2015-16 run that almost came to a screeching halt in the West Finals. Thanks largely to the Splash Brothers backcourt, the Dubs avoided elimination, as Klay Thompson set a single-game postseason record with 11 three-pointers on Saturday.

Back-to-back league MVP Stephen Curry was also clutch down the stretch with 22 of his 31 points in the second half, but it was Thompson's 19 in the fourth that really helped keep Golden State's postseason alive.

"Believe it or not we never really doubted ourselves because we've been down and out before," said Thompson Saturday, per USA Today's Sam Amick. "We believed we can win three in a row. We had to take it one possession at a time, but we really believed and we got back to things that we did and we were in good shape."

The Warriors defeated the Cavs in six games last year, but with one big difference. James was essentially on his own, without the services of Kevin Love for the entire series and the preceding two rounds. Kyrie Irving went down in the NBA Finals opener and was out the rest of the way, too.

With Irving and Love healthy, the Cavs have managed to post 116.2 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com—the most efficient offense through the first three rounds in the past 20 postseasons.

This is the ultimate opportunity for James to cement his legacy: deliver a maiden championship for his home franchise and do so in vengeful fashion against a record-setting 73-win opponent.

Given how poorly Warriors forward Draymond Green has played throughout the current series, he figures to raise his game in the NBA Finals. He and reigning Finals MVP Andre Iguodala will draw the unenviable defensive assignment of James, and they're both capable of locking him down.

Although Irving should be able to compete at or near Curry's level, J.R. Smith will be hard-pressed to match Thompson at 2-guard, and Love is a huge wild card. He scored 13 combined points in Cleveland's two losses to the Raptors but erupted for 45 total in the past two games, which were both huge Cavs victories.

Whatever happens in the regular season should be taken with a grain of salt, but in two games against the Warriors, Love averaged only 6.5 points and shot 28.6 percent from the floor. That should at least temper Cleveland's optimism if Golden State is indeed its NBA Finals adversary.

The collective experience the Warriors' core has of winning last year's championship, building on that momentum with 73 wins and bouncing back from huge adversity against OKC gives the West superpower a big edge.

James will summon all his fathomable willpower to raise a championship banner in Quicken Loans Arena. While the Cavs may be the fresher team, home-court advantage figures to be the difference as Golden State successfully repeats in a seven-game saga for the ages.