It would only be normal for NBA fans to feel a major case of déjà vu as the Championship Series gets underway later tonight. This will be the fourth consecutive NBA Finals to feature Golden State and Cleveland and fans seem a little weary of the matchup, although it was anything but unexpected.  In fact, Unanimous AI predicted this to happen last October, not only picking the two finals teams but also correctly forecasting that the Warriors and Cavs would beat Houston and Boston respectively in the conference finals.

Entering the Finals tonight, both teams have some injury issues and question marks. Cleveland forward Kevin Love has been in a league-mandated concussion protocol since an injury in the conference finals. Meanwhile, Golden State swingman Andre Iguodala is confirmed to miss at least the first game of the playoffs with a leg contusion. That being said, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and LeBron James all will be in place when their teams hit the floor tonight.

Before asking the swarm to predict the outcome of the Championship Series, researchers first wanted the swarm to provide some context and insight for how they were thinking together on some sentiment-based evaluations of the strengths of both teams. As you can see by the replays above, the swarm expects Golden State to have the upper hand on both ends of the court, which may make this a quick series.

With those framing questions on offense and defense in the finals in mind, it shouldn’t be any shock that the swarm has very strong confidence in Golden State winning it all yet again. In the replay above, there’s not only a fast consensus for the Warriors, but also a high confidence prediction overall. The swarm then buttressed that conviction by assigning a maximum hypothetical dollar confidence to the series outcome.

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