Former Houston Rockets player Gerald Green recently indicated that the 2017-18 Rockets would have easily handled the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals if Chris Paul had not been injured earlier in the playoffs.
“If Chris Paul doesn’t get hurt, we win a ring,” Green said. “Easy. We would’ve beat them. We were the better team. We was ready for them. We would’ve beat Cleveland pretty easy. … We were special.”
Green has made many stops throughout his basketball career, but he has never won a ring. He surely wishes he got one in 2018.
In the 2018 Western Conference Finals, the Rockets had a 3-2 series lead over the Golden State Warriors. However, an injury prevented Paul from playing in either of the final two contests of the series. That allowed the Warriors to ultimately come from behind and advance to the NBA Finals.
Green’s stance is obviously one that has a touch of bias attached to it. Still, it’s impossible to know how the NBA Finals would have turned out without Paul’s injury.
In those 2018 NBA Finals, the Cavs were considered huge underdogs, and there weren’t many surprises throughout the course of the series. Golden State swept Cleveland in four games to claim the 2018 NBA title.
The Cavaliers spent the next three seasons playing miserably, but they have made a dramatic improvement this season. It remains to be seen how far the Cavs will make it this season, but the organization is clearly trending in the right direction.
