[ti:Star-Filled Teams Face Each Other in NBA Finals] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.80]The NBA Finals begin Thursday night in Oakland, a city in northern California. [00:10.12]Last year, the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA championship. [00:18.04]It was the first major title for a Cleveland sports team since the 1960s. [00:26.04]The year before, Golden State, based in Oakland, [00:31.52]defeated Cleveland for its first championship since 1975. [00:37.76]This year, the two teams will meet again for a chance to find out which one is really the best. [00:46.76]Cleveland is led by one of the NBA's all-time great players, LeBron James. [00:54.24]He is playing in the Finals for the seventh-straight season. [01:00.32]He is the first player to do that since the 1960s. [01:05.00]The Golden State Warriors have Steph Curry, the league's Most Valuable Player last year, [01:11.76]and Kevin Durant, one of the NBA's best players. [01:16.60]The series is "best of seven," [01:19.68]which means the first team to win four games will be champion. [01:25.44]The teams have a number of other All-Star players, [01:29.32]they are among the best in the NBA. [01:33.76]Cleveland has Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, [01:37.64]while Golden State has Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. [01:42.40]So in this match-up of star players, which team will win? [01:49.04]James thinks his Cavaliers will win. [01:52.88]"I feel good about our chances, very good," he said. [01:58.44]But he is in the minority. Many experts are picking the Warriors to win. [02:04.80]Tim Reynolds is the basketball writer for the Associated Press news agency. [02:11.08]Reynolds wrote that Golden State will win in seven games. [02:16.00]His reason? [02:18.28]Cleveland's defense is not good enough to stop Golden State. [02:23.52]"James will push Golden State to the limit. [02:26.48]But in the end, the 2016 loss will be avenged [02:31.88]and the championship confetti will finally fall on Durant." [02:36.88]The website FiveThirtyEight.com [02:40.76]wrote that the Warriors might be the best team in NBA history, [02:45.72]even better than last year's team, which set a record with 73 wins. [02:52.52]The site's "prediction system" gives Cleveland [02:56.84]only a 10 percent chance of winning the championship. [03:01.56]But one NBA coach thinks Cleveland will win. [03:06.36]Tom Thibodeau is the coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. [03:11.88]He called Golden State "dominant," but also complimented James. [03:18.14]"You can never bet against LeBron. [03:22.00]If a game is close down the stretch, he can take it over," Thibodeau said. [03:28.28]I'm Dan Friedell. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM