In terms of quality rivalries this past decade, the Golden State Warriors vs Cleveland Cavaliers from 2015 to 2018 perhaps eclipsed all else. Everyone looked forward to LeBron James’ battles against Stephen Curry. For four years in a row, the sides met in the NBA Finals, with GSW emerging victorious on 3 occasions. Recently, however, Celtics mainstay Marcus Smart felt that if they managed to beat the Cavaliers in 2018, they’d have won the championship.

The 2018 season was remembered for the brutality of Stephen Curry and co. After three consecutive summit clashes, this Cleveland vs Golden State series was anticipated to be the biggest and most tight clash of them all. On the contrary, Steve Kerr’s men ran riot in the Finals, romping to a 4-0 victory. However, to make it to the Finals in the first place, the Cavaliers had to overcome the Boston Celtics in an iconic Conference Final.

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Marcus Smart believes Celtics could’ve pipped LeBron James and Stephen Curry in NBA 2017-18

In the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2018 season, the Cavaliers took on the Celtics. Unsurprisingly, James was the top scorer of the series, putting in dominant performances in every game. However, Boston squandered a 2-0 lead in the series, before eventually going down 3-4. Along with Jaylen Brown, the now 27-year-old Marcus Smart was an integral part of the roster.

In a recent interview, Smart was asked about the last time the East was this open. And looking back at the 2018 heartbreak, the guard took a sly dig at James and Curry. “[20]18 was probably that for us. We definitely thought that we had a great chance. To this day we still thought if we went to the championship instead of LeBron and those guys, we definitely would’ve beat Golden State that year.”

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The 2017-18 season was surely gut-wrenching for the Boston Celtics. Do you think avoiding the 7th game loss vs Cleveland would’ve won them the title? Or would the Golden State tornado have taken them down too? I guess we’ll never know!

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