So here we finally are at the beginning of The Trilogy, which it has been dubbed by the sports world. After a long regular season and what has to this point been mostly a disappointing playoff season, the NBA Finals rematch that we have been waiting for is here at last! The series gets started tonight and we finally get what we’ve been impatiently waiting for…hopefully. What do we actually have to look forward to? Let’s take a look at this series.

The Golden State Warriors are back in the Finals for the third time reloaded with some guy who looks a lot like Kevin Durant in the place of Harrison Barnes. If the series is based on talent alone then the Warriors are in for a feast and the Cavs will suffer through famine and a thirsty drought. The Warriors are so loaded offensively that they couldn’t even figure out how to fire all the guns at one time earlier this season. That has changed now as Durant has stepped up to be the best player on the team and helped them win 12 straight games to get to the championship round unscathed. If the Warriors are clicking offensively and defensively, it’s said that there’s little hope for a long series, except the best player in the NBA isn’t on the Warriors roster.

Enter LeBron James. If he is truly to become that rival in the Jordan discussion like some believe he is, he must do the impossible and slay the mythical juggernaut/dragon/demon that is this Warriors team. It won’t be easy and just about every analyst is picking the Warriors in much less than 7 games, but I believe (or is that hope?) that this Trilogy as it’s being called by various media outlets will be much more competitive than many think. That is because LeBron James remains the best player in the league, even at the ripe-old age of 32 and perhaps more importantly, he has proven to be Kevin Durant’s kryptonite. In head to head competition, LeBron has a decided edge. In 23 games, he is 18-5 against Durant according to a Sports Illustrated article this week by Rob Mahoney. That’s…not good for Durant.

There are other narratives aplenty. Can Steph Curry return to that magical level that he was playing at for nearly two years before last year’s Finals saw him being D-uped by Kevin Love and throwing behind the back passes to no one in particular in crunch time? Can LeBron catch up with that ghost of Michael Jordan that he’s talked about striving to equal or maybe pass in the greatest of all time debate by winning another title? (Someone should probably tell LeBron that MJ is still alive, so a ghost isn’t really what he’s chasing.) Will Durant win the championship that his move, from a title-contending team in OKC to the title front-runner Warriors, requires to quiet the critics who question his competitiveness for it? Can Kevin Love keep his hot-shooting streak going after a great Eastern Conference Finals series that saw him shoot a crazy percentage from the three? Will Klay Thompson break out of his “slump” that has him averaging “only” 14 points per game? Can Kyrie Irving continue to be that closer a’ la D.Wade that LeBron needs to be able to pass to in some critical game final moments? Will Draymond keep both his cool and his hands (and feet) to himself?

We start to find out tonight baby! Oh yeah, almost forgot. My prediction? Warriors in 7, but I wouldn’t be mad if the Cavs held this near-perfect team out of the promised land for one more season. They’re probably going to be here for years to come. Whoever wins, I just want a great playoff series. Now, enough talk! Let’s go!!