NBA Finals 2017: Warriors vs. Cavaliers TV Schedule and Game 1 Live Stream

After a long regular season and three rounds of postseason action, we've finally reached the 2017 NBA Finals. Unsurprisingly, the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers are going to face off in the final series once again.

While there was only mild drama leading up to this point, there should be plenty of drama in this series. This is the third consecutive year these two teams are facing off for the title. The Warriors and Cavaliers have developed a rivalry because of their shared dominance.

Will LeBron James and the Cavaliers bring another title to Cleveland? Will the Warriors get revenge after blowing a 3-1 series lead in last year's finals? We'll have our answers after just seven games, if the series goes that long.

The first game kicks off on Thursday night, and we're here with everything you need to know about Game 1. We'll run down the scheduling information and latest odds courtesy of our friends at OddsShark.com. We'll also examine the latest playoff-related buzz.

2017 NBA Finals Game 1

What: Cleveland at Golden State

When: Thursday, June 1

Time: 9 p.m. ET

National TV: ABC

Live Stream: WatchESPN

Line: GS -7

Full Finals Schedule

Game 1: Cleveland at Golden State - Thursday, June 1

Game 2: Cleveland at Golden State - Sunday, June 4

Game 3: Golden State at Cleveland - Wednesday, June 7

Game 4: Golden State at Cleveland - Friday, June 9

Game 5: Cleveland at Golden State - Monday, June 12

Game 6: Golden State at Cleveland - Thursday, June 15

Game 7: Cleveland at Golden State - Sunday, June 18

*All games on ABC.

Latest Buzz

Are the Warriors the New NBA Villains?

The Warriors are pretty heavy favorites for Game 1 and are heavy favorites to win the series. The current odds of a Warriors sweep is just 13-2. The odds of a Cavaliers sweep are 330-1. In addition to being heavy favorites, have the Warriors also become villains?

This is a topic recently presented by Benjamin Hoffman of the New York Times. Hoffman goes into detail about the team's attitude, the mindset of owner Joe Lacob and the addition of Kevin Durant—and it's all an excellent read. Here's a bit of what Hoffman had to say:

"The Warriors, for some, have become the 'big bad' that Cleveland will try to vanquish. After a few years as the darlings of the league, Golden State has found that its reputation has evolved, and while any backlash against it has been far from universal, it has at times embraced the heel turn as just another step in its relentless pursuit of basketball perfection. If they had to become villains along the way, so be it."

It may seem strange to view the Warriors as villains after so many years of the NBA fanbase tossing hate at LeBron. The ill-fated Decision started the James-as-a-villain storyline, and with his seventh straight appearance in the finals, James is a presence many have grown tired of.

However, many fans have also grown weary of the Warriors. They're in the finals for a third straight year, and they've dominated most regular-season games along the way. Last year, the Warriors won more games than any team in NBA history. In the offseason, they added former foe Kevin Durant to the roster.

Perhaps it's this building of a super team—the West Coast Avengers of basketball, if you will—that has flipped the narrative on the Warriors. They now have a similar aura to the Miami Heat super team James once created in South Beach.

Many folks are never going to embrace LeBron because he was seemingly anointed before even playing in the NBA. Some will continue to dislike him because of a belief that his name even creeping into a conversation with the great Michael Jordan is blasphemy. Yet, there will be many rooting for is Cavaliers in this year's finals

Pressure is on Durant

One of the reasons so many people have a problem with James creeping into the "greatest players" conversation is his finals record. James is making his eighth appearance in the finals but has only three titles to show for it. Another loss would be a huge disappointment, but James might not be the player facing the most pressure in this series.

Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder after nine seasons with the franchise in order to chase the ring that has for so long eluded him. The fact that he joined the most dominant team in the Western Conference irked plenty, and it's part of the reason the Warriors have become the bad guys in the NBA.

Former NBA veteran Paul Pierce likened Durant's jump from the Thunder to the Warriors to joining a gang of bullies.

"I'm not a guy who goes into the neighborhood, gets beat up by the bully's gang, and then now I want to join their gang," Pierce said on On ESPN's The Jump (h/t Kyle Boone of CBSSports.com). "That's just not me; I wanna fight, let's go! I mean I'm gonna stand up for myself, that's just the competitive nature of where I come from, the era I grew up in."

While James certainly didn't handle his sabbatical from Cleveland in Miami with grace, Durant's jump to Golden State has been seen even more negatively by some. James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh formed a super team in Miami. Durant joined an already-built super team.

It's certainly fair to accuse Durant of ring-chasing—it's fairly obvious it's why he made the switch—and it's likely to have a very negative impact on his legacy is the Warriors falter again in the finals.